There were many highly political aspects around the Canada-U.S. 4 Nations Face Off championship game last week, but one was hockey legend and NHL on TNT broadcaster Wayne Gretzky’s involvement. The Brantford, Ontario-born Gretzky was the honorary captain for Canada there, but didn’t wear anything in Canadian colours (unlike U.S. honorary captain Mike Eruzione, who wore an American jersey) and gave the U.S. team a much-debated thumbs-up.
All of that led to media questions about how Gretzky sees tariffs and (especially) “51st state” rhetoric and annexation threats from U.S. President Donald Trump (who Gretzky has long had a friendship with, including attending his Jan. 20 inauguration). And that was especially true with Gretzky himself refusing to speak to media, and with that leading to waves of articles on the damage he was doing to his image with his Trump support and his lack of comment on this front.
But on Wednesday night, Trump himself posted on his own Truth Social site about Gretzky:
“Wayne Gretzky is a fantastic guy! They call him, ‘The Great One,’ and he is. He could run for any political office in Canada, and win. Wayne is my friend, and he wants to make me happy, and is therefore somewhat ‘low key’ about Canada remaining a separate Country, rather than becoming a cherished and beautiful 51st State, paying much Lower Taxes, a Free and Powerful Military, NO TARIFFS, and having a Booming Economy.
“Wayne and Janet, his wonderful wife, love Canada, and they should only support Canada, and whatever else makes the Canadian People, and Governor Justin Trudeau, happy. He’s the Greatest Canadian of them all, and I am therefore making him a “free agent,” because I don’t want anyone in Canada to say anything bad about him. He supports Canada the way it is, as he should, even though it’s not nearly as good as it could be as part of the Greatest and Most Powerful Country in the World, the Good Ole’ U.S.A.!”
It’s fascinating that Trump is saying Gretzky “supports Canada the way it is, as he should,” given that that support would be contrary to Trump’s stated policy of making Canada the 51st U.S. state. It’s also remarkable that it’s Trump, not Gretzky, relaying Gretzky’s supposed position, and saying that Gretzky should feel free to be a “free agent” to discuss this.
At the moment, Gretzky has one of the biggest platforms imaginable on Canada-U.S. issues. (And those issues remain highly volatile, considering repeated annexation threats and Trump’s back-and-forth statements on a variety of different tariffs.) Beyond his broadcasting work for the NHL on TNT (he’s not there every week, but makes a notable impact when he is, and does more broadcasting in the lead-up to the playoffs and then the postseason itself), Gretzky was a key part of that massively-watched (and highly political) 4 Nations tournament and final. And he’s about to get even more attention around Alex Ovechkin’s push to break his NHL career goals record.
Gretzky’s loyalties between Canada and the U.S. have also long been a subject of debate. Gretzky was born and raised in Canada, and represented the country internationally at junior and senior levels from 1978-98. He also then was executive director of the Canadian men’s Olympic team at the 2002 and 2006 Olympics, and was one of four final torchbearers and torchlighters at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics (and, indeed, the final one with his outdoor torchlighting following a bizarre pickup truck ride).
But he’s largely lived in the U.S. since forcing a trade from Edmonton to Los Angeles in 1988, and his long-running support for Trump in particular has had many Canadians questioning where he stands, even before the current Canada-U.S. debates.
Around all that, Gretzky’s under even a larger microscope than normal. And everyone wants to know exactly what he thinks about Trump, the U.S., and Canada. So it’s notable to see Trump reference Gretzky’s views and also declare him a “free agent” to comment on this, especially after so much media discussion of him not commenting.
We’ll see if Gretzky does take this invitation to weigh in publicly, or if he lets Trump’s statement do the talking for him.