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Sports·P Space·Model-prefilled problem·Published 2026-07-20

Brady Tkachuk decries White House’s AI video of him insulting Canadians after US gold

US ice hockey star Brady Tkachuk has said he does not appreciate an AI video released by the White House that shows him insulting Canadians. Tkachuk played in the Americans’ victory over Canada at the Winter Olympics on Sunday, which secured the US men their first gold medal since 1980. In the wake of that win, the White House’s TikTok account published video of Tkachuk saying: “They booed our national anthem, so I had to come out and teach those maple syrup eating fuckers a lesson.” Tkachuk never said those wor…

TRV-2026-0318JournalismPermanent record — cite & verify
Brady Tkachuk decries White House’s AI video of him insulting Canadians after US gold

Publisher image: The Guardian.

The quick read

On 26 February 2026, reporting described a White House TikTok post after the US men's ice hockey gold-medal win over Canada that used an AI-generated video to show Brady Tkachuk insulting Canadians. The clip, labelled as AI-generated and viewed more than 10 million times, contained fabricated remarks Tkachuk said he never made.

The incident matters because a government account amplified synthetic media impersonating a private athlete, creating reputational risk for a player employed in Canada and requiring public correction. What remains uncertain from the text is whether the platform or White House will remove the video, what policies governed its creation, and whether similar synthetic posts will continue.

Main points
  • White House TikTok account published AI-generated video of Brady Tkachuk after US men's Olympic gold medal win over Canada
  • Fake clip showed Tkachuk insulting Canadians and has had more than 10m views while labelled as AI-generated
  • Tkachuk publicly denied the clip, saying it was not his voice and not his lips moving, and that he would never say that
  • Player noted reputational stakes because he is captain of the Ottawa Senators in the Canadian capital
Problem

An AI-generated video published by the White House falsely depicted US hockey player Brady Tkachuk insulting Canadians, amassing over 10 million views and forcing him to publicly disavow it.

The rundown

The White House TikTok account released the clip after the US men beat Canada on Sunday to win their first Olympic gold since 1980. The video was labelled as AI-generated and included fabricated audio of Tkachuk insulting Canadians.

Tkachuk said on Thursday the clip was fake, stating it was not his voice and not his lips moving, and that those words would never come out of his mouth. He plays in Ottawa as captain of the Senators, giving him reason to distance himself.

The article also describes fallout from Donald Trump's congratulatory call to the team, including a joke about the women's team that captain Hilary Knight called distasteful, and notes 20 men's players visited the White House and attended the State of the Union.

Sources

Reader signal

How should this claim be treated?

The debate