The United States just completed one of its most memorable Olympic hockey runs since 1980. The men’s team edged Canada in overtime for gold, and the women’s team did the same days earlier. That is the kind of rare bipartisan moment Americans usually claim to want: national pride, shared achievement, a flag on the podium. Instead, much of the political class fixated on one man in the locker room holding a beer.
FBI Director Kash Patel joined Team USA’s celebration after the men’s overtime win against Canada in Milan, singing along with players as a gold medal was briefly placed around his neck. Video circulated rapidly. Critics rushed to treat the images as a scandal, not a snapshot of a public official celebrating a historic win with athletes who had invited him into their locker room.
Democrats fly to El Salvador to sip margaritas with MS-13 gangbangers.
— Gina Milan (@ginamilan_) February 23, 2026
Kash Patel flies to Milan to chug beers with Team USA after winning gold.
We are not the same. pic.twitter.com/3y3Z5AjUMl
The complaint is not really about decorum. The same voices that defended far more questionable conduct from favored Democrat officials now insist that a beer and a song in a victorious locker room prove Patel is unserious or unfit. What this moment actually reveals is how reflexively some in the media and political world treat every move by a Trump appointee as presumptively suspect.
Unity, Sacrifice, Attitude- what it takes to be the best in the world. These men live and breathe it. Now Team USA are gold medal champions, legends standing on the shoulders of giants. Thank you for representing the greatest country on earth, in the greatest game ever created.… pic.twitter.com/hBG987pxM2
— Kash Patel (@Kash_Patel) February 22, 2026
ALSO SEE: Trump Has Epic Phone Call With US Olympic Hockey Team, Patel on Hand As He Invites Them to SOTU
Team USA Won Gold and the Media Can't Stand It
There are legitimate questions worth answering. Patel did travel to Italy using government resources, and he leads an agency that is simultaneously handling sensitive investigations, including a shooting at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence and a high-profile missing persons case in Arizona. Those matters are deadly serious, and they deserve sober attention. The Hill reports that Patel also met with the Milan Joint Operations Center and coordinated on Olympic security, including protection for American athletes and citizens at the games and the upcoming 2028 games in Los Angeles. That is squarely within the FBI’s mission.
For the very concerned media - yes, I love America and was extremely humbled when my friends, the newly minted Gold Medal winners on Team USA, invited me into the locker room to celebrate this historic moment with the boys- Greatest country on earth and greatest sport on earth.…
— Kash Patel (@Kash_Patel) February 23, 2026
An FBI spokesperson has said the trip involved official business with Italian law enforcement and security officials, and that reports portraying the visit as a joyride were misleading. Other outlets note he received briefings on Olympic security and broader cooperation. If those facts hold, then the basic structure is clear: An official goes abroad for security meetings at a global event, then takes a few hours to attend the culminating game of a sport he actually plays and loves. That is not corruption. It is the normal intersection of work, public symbolism, and human enthusiasm.
The double standard is obvious. When progressive figures show up in pop culture spaces or celebrate with winning teams, it is framed as relatability and soft power. When a conservative administration’s FBI director sings along with a Toby Keith song in a jubilant locker room, it becomes an ethics crisis. The complaint is not that an official mixed with athletes; it is that the official is Kash Patel, serving under President Trump, embodying a version of unapologetic patriotism that many in the press corps do not like.
Great visit with the Milan Joint Operations Center, a 24/7 interagency operation with international partners to support the Winter Olympics and Paralympic Games. The JOC is focused on protecting the US athletes, 250,000 US citizens who traveled to Milan for the games, as well as… pic.twitter.com/RKUuq28NGk
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) February 21, 2026
That does not mean Patel is above scrutiny. No official should be. If evidence (though highly unlikely) emerges that travel was misrepresented or rules were broken, Congress and inspectors general should do their jobs. But that is different from treating every social media clip as proof of misconduct. When headlines lean harder on optics than on facts, the public learns the wrong lesson. They are told to resent the person enjoying a beer with players rather than to ask whether the mission, security, and spending are lawful and transparent.
You can hear the genuine pride in Donald Trumps voice when he called the Team USA Hockey Team pic.twitter.com/ch6GbXShwh
— Harrison Krank (@HarrisonKrank) February 23, 2026
Americans are right to expect seriousness from the people who protect them. Seriousness, though, is not the same thing as joylessness. It is possible to oversee an investigation into a threat at Mar-a-Lago and still stand in a locker room later that day, proud of the country those players represent. What ought to bother us is not that an FBI director was briefly part of a gold medal celebration but that far too many in our politics cannot recognize a straightforward patriotic moment without trying to turn it into another partisan indictment.
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