2026 Winter Olympics: American player Brady Tkachuk in AI video at the White House

US men’s ice hockey player Brady Tkachuk distanced himself from an AI-enhanced video at the White House in which he appeared to disparage Canadians, saying: “Those words will never come out of my mouth.”

The video was posted to the White House’s official TikTok account after the United States beat Canada on Sunday to win the gold medal at the Winter Olympics, and was tagged as using artificial intelligence.

It shows an edited clip of Kkachuk speaking at a 4 Nations Face-Off press conference last year, during which Canadians booed the American national anthem.

“They booed our national anthem, so I had to go out and teach these maple syrup eaters,” Tkachuk appeared to say. [expletive] lesson. “Canada, we own you, little brother.”

Tkachuk is captain of the Ottawa Senators, and after playing in the Canadian team’s first NHL game since the Olympics, he said: “Well, obviously it’s fake, because it’s not my voice, it’s not my lips moving.

He added: “I do not control any of these accounts.” “I know those words will never come out of my mouth, so I can’t do anything about it.

“That’s not what I was saying. I would never say that. It’s not who I am. So I guess I don’t like this video.”

The White House has been contacted for a response.

Several of Tkachuk’s teammates also apologized for laughing during a congratulatory call from Donald Trump, when the US president said he would “likely be impeached” if he did not invite the gold-medal-winning women’s team as well as the men to the State of the Union address.

While women’s team captain Hilary Knight said Trump’s joke was “disgusting,” she added that “the men were in a tough spot” and there was a “genuine level of support and respect” between the two American teams.

Tkachuk’s brother, Matthew Tkachuk, who plays for the Florida Panthers, said the teams were “very close” at the Milan-Cortina games.

“We watched other events together and went and supported,” he said. “We love the women’s team and the women’s team loves us, and we are very proud that we had a clean sweep of the gold medals.”

US teammate Jake Sanderson said the laugh was “a bit wrong” and “a bit out of proportion”, while reserve goalkeeper Jeremy Swayman said “we should have done things differently”, and Charlie McAvoy added it “doesn’t reflect how we feel”.