OTTAWA, Ontario — Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk spoke out Thursday against a manipulated social media video posted by the White House, denouncing the AI-generated content that falsely portrayed him making offensive remarks about Canadians following his Olympic gold medal victory.
The TikTok post featured artificial audio making it seem as though Tkachuk called Canadians “maple syrup eating f—s,” with the profanity censored. The 26-year-old Arizona-born hockey star dismissed the content as “clearly fake,” pointing out that the voice didn’t sync with the lip movements and emphasizing he would never use such language. The video does include a disclaimer noting it “contains AI-generated media.”
Tkachuk also refuted claims that he was the person heard yelling “close the northern border” during Team USA’s victory celebration call with President Donald Trump following their 2-1 triumph over Canada in Sunday’s Olympic final.
The White House has not yet provided a response to requests for comment regarding the controversial post.
The NHL captain and his Olympic teammates have returned from Italy this week to resume the regular hockey season. Several team members were present at Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday evening in Washington, where they received applause from the audience.
The American men’s victory completed a historic sweep for Team USA, coming after the women’s team also defeated Canada 2-1 in overtime three days prior, marking the first time Americans won both Olympic hockey championships in the same games.
