Brady Tkachuk, the NHL star who won a gold on Team USA at this year’s Winter Olympics, just learned a hard lesson that anyone who has paid even a modicum of attention to the news already knew: No one ever comes out looking better after embracing President Donald Trump.
After Tkachuk proudly served as a political prop during Trump’s State of the Union address earlier this week, the White House repaid that favor by releasing an AI-generated video on TikTok of Tkachuk disparaging Canadians.
The video takes footage of Tkachuk and his brother—also an NHL player and member of the Team USA hockey team—speaking at a recent news conference and dubs over it with the words "They booed our national anthem, so I had to come out and teach those maple-syrup-eating fucks a lesson. Canada, we own you, little bro."
Those words are particularly problematic for Tkachuk, whose NHL team is the Ottawa Senators, based in Canada. Methinks the fans of his team won’t take kindly to being taunted by someone who plays hockey in their country.
Tkachuk was asked about the video at a news conference on Thursday, in which he denounced it and said it was a fake.
“That’s not my voice. It’s something I’d never say,” he said. “It’s clearly fake, because it’s not my voice, and not my lips moving. I’m not in control of any of those accounts. I know that those words would never come out of my mouth.”
“I don’t like that video,” he added.
Tkachuk and members of the Olympic men's hockey team have been under fire since their overtime victory over Canada on Feb. 22, giving the U.S. its first men’s hockey gold medal since 1980.
United States hockey player Matthew Tkachuk on Feb. 23 in Miami.
After the win, the team bizarrely celebrated in their locker room with FBI Director Kash Patel, who wasted taxpayer dollars in order to party it up at the Olympic games. During the celebration, Patel called Trump, who, in between praising the men's players, disparaged the women's hockey team. Trump said he would have to also invite the women’s team to the White House, or risk being impeached. Many of the men’s players laughed.
Then the team traveled to Washington, D.C., to be used as Trump’s political prop. The president hosted them at the White House, then trotted them out at his dour and lie-filled State of the Union address. Some of the men’s players sported MAGA hats in photos with Trump administration officials, after claiming that their visit wasn’t political.
The Tkachuk brothers, for their part, appear to be Trump supporters. In fact, their conduct has earned them hatred from Canadian hockey fans.
Tkachuk’s brother, Matthew, went to the White House in January to celebrate his team's Stanley Cup victory. The celebration came amid outcry to a Trump immigration agent killing an unarmed mother in Minneapolis, but Matthew Tkachuk heaped praise on Trump anyway.
"The two Cups was pretty good, but that walk with you might've trumped it all," Matthew said to Trump while at the podium. "Nothing beats this. I'm so proud to be an American and so proud to be here with you and everybody else."
Yet, rather than reward the Tkachuks, Trump’s White House instead caused problems for Brady.
And to that, we offer up the lyrics to Al Wilson’s “The Snake”—one of Trump’s favorites, which he’s referred to in campaign rallies.
"I saved you," cried that woman
“And you've bit me even, why?
And you know your bite is poisonous and now I'm gonna die"
"Oh shut up, silly woman," said that reptile with a grin
"You knew damn well I was a snake before you brought me in.”
