President Donald Trump praised the Florida Panthers for an incredible playoff run and for their good looks before they bestowed him with a golden gift on Thursday. Speaking at an event celebrating the hockey team’s 2025 Stanley Cup victory – the second in a row – the president praised the strapping team for their good looks and ‘power.’ ‘Good-looking people, young beautiful people, I hate them,’ the president joked, alluding to the players stealing his spotlight. ‘You hate standing here with all this power behind you. But I got power too. It’s called the United States military.’
Stanley cup champs mirror the President’s style
All of the championship-winning team’s players were dressed in typical Trumpian attire: navy blue suits, white shirts and bright red ties, though some players wore more muted reds. After lauding the team’s accomplishments, the player’s dazzling looks and the team ownership’s congenial dispositions, Trump remarked how the dozens of players were going to take a walk down his newly installed Presidential Walk of Fame. The West Wing display that faces the Rose Garden from the colonnade exhibits portraits of past presidents with plaques describing their contributions or misdeeds. The gold-framed portraits have been the cause of much controversy, with some critics labeling them as gaudy and poorly designed, though Trump on Thursday was more focused on the name being eerily similar to ‘the walk of shame.’
President jokes about seizing team’s golden gift
‘We’re going to pass the Presidential Wall of Fame,’ the president said before launching into a side story. He continued: ‘So I had a choice, walk of fame or wall of fame. And you know what I decided, right? It said walk because I think of the walk of shame. This was an interesting situation. That was the one reason I didn’t want to do that, because I said, people are going to think about that.’ The team made the president smile with a gift of a golden hockey stick, a present that would fit in well, given the White House’s new dazzling decor. While delivering his speech, Trump spotted the glistening hockey stick and admitted that he wanted it. He joked that as president, he could take it if he wanted to.
Florida Panthers Matthew Tkachuk gave Trump the stick and noted how it would be handy in a game to slash opposing players. The president smiled and repeated the player, ‘Good for slashing,’ he said. Sticking it to his northern neighbors, the president joked that he was proud that the Florida team was able to beat the Edmonton Oilers and deny Canada a Stanley Cup victory. ‘You denied Canada the Stanley Cup,’ he proclaimed.
‘We have a little competition’ with Canada, he added while calling the endeavor the ‘most dominant playoff run in history.’ In addition to the golden stick, the Panthers awarded the president with a jersey emblazoned with the number 47, an ode to Trump serving as the 47th president of the US.
