Donald Trump held a victory rally in front of thousands of his supporters at Capital One Arena on Sunday night. The celebration, thrown on the snowy eve before his presidential inauguration, featured Trump’s first major address in Washington DC since a mob of his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
During his hour-long remarks, Trump praised Monumental Sports & Entertainment owner Ted Leonsis and complimented Washington Capitals’ captain Alex Ovechkin. The remarks came 36 minutes into his speech after Trump gave shoutouts to his nominations for cabinet picks and spoke about pardoning the “J6 hostages.”
“I wanna thank the owners of this arena, they are great,” Trump said.” They are up here someplace in one of those beautiful boxes. Their team is doing very well and Ovechkin is a great player, right?”
The crowd cheered.
“But I wanna thank Ted and all of the owners for allowing this to take place. It was really great and thank you. It’s a hell of operation, a great place, and fantastic arena. Thank you, Ted. Thank you, everybody.”
Trump’s praise for Ovechkin comes after they met twice during his first term. Trump hosted the Capitals’ Stanley Cup championship team at the White House in March 2019.
“I have no choice but to be his fan,” Trump said then. “Because he is something special. Look at those hands… Special athlete, player.”
He added later, “Alexander the Great, they call him, has spent his entire 13-year NHL career with the Washington Capitals and his hard work and loyalty has paid off last season. He outscored every player in the league. Wow, that’s not bad right? With 64 goals – It’s like Babe Ruth – he had more than every player in the league. 64 goals, 114 points, and was named the playoff MVP and that was easy. No one did more to deserve the Conn Smythe trophy, and Alex congratulations.”
Ovechkin, who also has a place near Miami, attended a Christmas Eve Party at Mar-a-Lago later that year, presenting Trump with one of his jerseys.
Monday’s inauguration of Trump will begin around 11:30 am where Trump will be sworn in for his second term and become the 47th president of the United States. The ceremony has been moved indoors to the Captiol Rotunda due to frigid temperatures.
