Team USA hockey star Brady Tkachuk addressed what did — and did not — happen on a celebratory phone call with President Donald Trump after taking home gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
During a chat with Trump, 79, in the aftermath of defeating Team Canada on Sunday, February 22, somebody in the Team USA locker room could be heard shouting, “Close the northern border!”
Theories began circulating that it was Tkachuk, 26, who made the comment.
“I’ve been seeing stuff that people think it’s me,” Tkachuk told reporters on Thursday, February 26. “But if you watch the video, that’s not my voice. It’s something that I’d never say.”
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He added, “I don’t know how that took a storm on its own when I give everything I have here.”
The American hockey star has spent all eight of his NHL seasons with the Ottawa Senators.
Tkachuk also addressed the backlash his teammates have faced for laughing at Trump’s joke about the Team USA women’s hockey team, who also won gold at the 2026 Olympics.
Trump said he would “probably be impeached” if he didn’t invite the women’s team to the White House along with the men.
“I don’t really have an answer. It’s a whirlwind of a moment,” Tkachuk attempted to explain. “You can’t control what somebody says. I guess [we] got caught off guard a little bit. You’re talking to the president 10 minutes after you achieve your dream.”
Tkachuk said he could understand why some of the women’s team might feel slighted by the men’s seemingly carefree response to the jab.
“I mean, I get it,” he said. “We support them, they support us. You can’t control what other people say. It was fun being around them, seeing how they play and the excellence around them.”
He added, “If I see one of them, we’ll talk about the excitement of what we can control, which is to be gold medalists.”
Tkachuk also addressed an AI-doctored video posted by the White House’s official TikTok account, which showed him saying about Canada, “They booed our national anthem, so I had to come out and teach those maple syrup-eating f***s a lesson.”
“Well, it’s clearly fake, because it’s not my voice, not my lips moving,” Tkachuk said on Thursday. “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.”
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He added, “I would never say that. That’s not who I am, so I guess I don’t like that video because that would never come out of my mouth, and [I] never had that thought.”
The TikTok video, which has been viewed more than 11 million times, has not been removed from the White House’s account.
Tkachuk returned to action with the Senators on Thursday night, but not before he and most of his Team USA teammates visited with Trump at the White House on Tuesday, February 24.
“It was special,” Tkachuk said of the trip. “Being an American citizen, you never really think you’re going to see the White House and be in the Oval Office.”