Donald Trump’s efforts to repair diplomatic relations with Canada hit a snag during Tuesday’s meeting with that country’s new prime minister, Mark Carney.
Declaring his respect for America’s northern neighbor, the President began listing his favorite Canadians to assembled media, starting with NHL legend and well-known Trump supporter Wayne Gretzky.
‘I love Canada,’ Trump said. ‘I have a lot of respect for the Canadians. Wayne Gretzky, the Great One.’
Trump then referenced another NHL superstar in the Washington Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin, who recently passed Gretzky as the league’s top all-time goal scorer.
‘You happen to have a very, very good hockey player right here on the Capitals, who I have a lot of… He is a big, tough cookie, too,’ Trump said of Ovechkin. ‘Just broke the record. And he’s a great guy.’
The problem, which was obvious to anyone familiar with hockey or Russia, is that Ovechkin isn’t Canadian. He was born and raised in Moscow and currently boasts a reported $4.2 million mansion in Virginia.
President Donald Trump meets Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in the Oval Office of the White House, where POTUS listed Alex Ovechkin as one of the Canadians he respects most
The Russian-born Ovechkin has never lived in Canada or played for a Canadian NHL team
And Ovechkin isn’t simply a Russian-born player. He played internationally for Russia as recently as 2019 and could do so again at the 2026 Winter Games. Ovechkin even received praise from Russian President Vladimir Putin after overtaking Gretzky.
Hockey fans and Trump critics were quick to seize upon the President’s gaffe.
‘Geography was never his strong suit, huh?’ one wrote on X.
‘The tremendous burden he carries of knowing it all,’ another joked.
Several commenters were quick to remember Fox host and Trump sycophant Ainsley Earhardt, who recently bragged the President’ ‘knows about every sport.’
And Trump didn’t just become aware of Ovechkin during his second term. Rather, the Putin supporter got a shoutout from Trump after winning the Stanley Cup with the Caps in 2018.
‘Congratulations to the Washington Capitals on their GREAT play and winning the Stanley Cup Championship,’ Trump wrote on what was then referred to as Twitter. ‘Alex Ovechkin, the team captain, was spectacular – a true Superstar! D.C. is popping, in many ways. What a time!’
Meanwhile, MAGA-land’s resident Canadian should relocate to the United States, according to a fifth of all respondents in a new poll from DailyMail.com and J.L. Partners.
Gretzky, a national hero in his native Canada, has faced criticism in his home country amid his embrace of Trump. Last month, in an online survey of more than 1,000 Canadians, one fifth said they felt Gretzky should stay in the US.
Another 20 percent of respondents said Gretzky ‘should apologize and end his friendship with Donald Trump,’ while 40 percent said he remains a ‘Canadian legend, regardless of his friendship’ with the 47th President.
A Florida resident who previously lived in Arizona and Los Angeles, Gretzky has been in the news a lot lately, both because his NHL scoring record was broken by Ovechkin and due to criticism he’s faced in Canada over his ties to Trump.
Ovechkin received an ‘attaboy’ from Trump after winning his first cup with the Caps in 2018
Even as Ovechkin was surpassing Gretzky with his 895th career goal last month, ‘The Great One’ was seated alongside Trump insider and FBI Director Kash Patel at UBS Arena on Long Island.
Both conservative and liberal Canadians have taken issue with Trump, who has stated on multiple occasions his desire to make Canada America’s 51st. What’s more, he’s since doubled down on the animosity between the two countries by adding tariffs to Canadian goods.
Last month, a famed Gretzky statue in Edmonton was smeared with feces after the Oilers legend attended post-election parties at the President’s club in Palm Beach, Florida as well as the inauguration in Washington.
But, amid the two countries’ unfolding trade war, it was Gretzky’s presence as Team Canada’s honorary captain at the NHL’s recent 4 Nations championship that really infuriated some of his countrymen.
Many have criticized Gretzky for failing to wear team colors at Canada’s overtime win over Team USA in Boston. Others, meanwhile, focused on Gretzky’s ties to Trump.
‘Just going to state this matter-of-factly,’ Canadian-based TSN reporter Dave Naylor wrote on X, ‘the honorary captain for Canada in this game publicly supports a political leader whose position is that Canada should not exist as a nation.’
But he did get support from a fellow Hockey Hall of Famer in Boston Bruins great Bobby Orr.
Gretzky has stayed silent on Trump’s tariffs against the US as the president has frequently stated his desire to make Canada the ’51st state’ and name Gretzky the ‘governor’
In an op-ed piece for the Toronto Sun, the Ontario native defended Gretzky, who famously won several major international competitions as captain of Team Canada during his playing days.
‘For the life of me, I cannot understand why the ‘haters’ have decided to go after Wayne because he ‘didn’t wear a Canadian jersey’ during his introduction at the final match,’ Orr wrote. ‘I, for one, thought that he looked very dignified while representing Canada with class and professionalism.
‘Remember, this is a man who wore the Maple Leaf on multiple occasions with pride,’ Orr continued. ‘As both a player and administrator, he has brought nothing but glory to his homeland year after year, decade after decade.’
Curiously, Orr’s column makes no direct mention of Trump.
Gretzky did attend Trump’s election victory party at Mar-a-Lago, where the two golf aficionados and their families were seen celebrating together.
Janet Jones, Gretzky’s long-time wife and Missouri native, shared a picture of her husband with Trump on social media, which appeared to anger liberal hockey fans last month.
‘You have to really question someone’s ethics and logic supporting someone like Trump,’ one user posted.
‘Apparently there is an inverse relationship between hockey skills and intelligence,’ another added.
One said: ‘Few things on earth more embarrassing than Canadian maga weirdos.’
