The Trump White House just got called out hard by a U.S. hockey star — and it’s not pretty.
Brady Tkachuk, captain of the Ottawa Senators and one of Team USA’s top Olympic forwards, told ESPN Thursday he was not amused after a “clearly fake” AI-generated video featuring his likeness surfaced online, shared by White House accounts.
The doctored clip showed Tkachuk at last year’s 4 Nations Face Off — where the U.S. and Canadian men’s teams collided three times in the first nine seconds of the game — supposedly saying: “They booed our national anthem, so I had to come out and teach those maple syrup eating f—- a lesson.”
“It’s clearly fake, because it’s not my voice, not my lips moving,” Tkachuk told ESPN during a media session in Ottawa. “I’m not in control of any of those accounts. I know that those words would never come out of my mouth. So, I can’t do anything about it.”
Translation: the White House made an AI deepfake of him, slapped it online, and acted like it was real. And yes, Tkachuk is furious.
This isn’t the first time the Trump White House has stoked controversy with AI trickery. Last year, the former president posted an AI video on Truth Social showing him flying a fighter jet and dropping poop on participants at the “No Kings” protests. The digital stunts are raising serious questions about ethics, consent, and where political messaging ends and flat-out impersonation begins.
Tkachuk’s pushback is more than just a sports star being annoyed online — it’s a reminder that AI video can be weaponized against people, even in politics. And if the past is any indicator, the White House has no problem turning deepfake antics into a public spectacle.
No statement from White House spokespeople was immediately available on Thursday regarding the Tkachuk video, but the backlash is already picking up steam on social media. Fans and journalists alike are calling it “tone-deaf” and “dangerously misleading.”
For Tkachuk, it’s simple, he didn’t say it, he didn’t approve it, and he’s not staying quiet about it.
“People need to know that I didn’t say those things. That’s not me,” he told ESPN. “It’s messed up.”
