Did the White House post on TikTok a real video showing USA men's hockey player Brady Tkachuk insulting Canada, calling them "maple syrup eating f***s"? No, that's not true: The clip of Tkachuk bad-mouthing Canada after the USA men's team won the gold medal in the Olympics is AI-generated audio. Tkachuk plays for the Ottawa Senators NHL team and said the clip is "clearly fake" and that it isn't his voice making the rude remark. The White House TikTok account tagged the post as AI-generated but other social media accounts did not.
The claim appeared in a February 22, 2026, video posted on Instagram account @kylesinclair210 (archived here). It opened with a voice saying:
They booed our anthem so I had to teach those maple syrup eating f***s a lesson.
This is what the video posted on Instagram looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from Instagram.)
The White House posted the video on their official TikTok account (archived here) and it is tagged as "contains ai-generated material," as this screenshot shows (red circle added by Lead Stories):
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot from TikTok.)
@whitehouse Silver does NOT shine just as bright 🥇🦅
♬ original sound - The White House
The footage opens with a clip from Brady and his brother Matthew Tkachuk's press conference at the 4 Nations Face-Off game in February 2025, as the signage behind them shows. Substitute over the authentic audio is an AI-generated voice saying, "They booed our anthem so I had to teach those maple syrup eating f***s a lesson," while the song "Free Bird" plays. This clip was posted on the YouTube account @RealQuotesAI in February 2025.
The original press conference video from the NHL (archived here) shows that Brady does not make the derogatory comment about Canada. The clip of the players on the ice celebrating their win is also from the 4 Nations Face-Off game and not the 2026 Olympics gold medal game.
Tkachuk spoke on February 26, 2026, saying it was not his voice mocking the Canadians after the gold medal win. According to ESPN (archived here), he said:
Well, it's clearly fake, because it's not my voice, not my lips moving. 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.
Tkachuk was asked if he liked the video and he replied:
It's not my voice. It's not what I was saying. 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 never had that thought.
