Trudeau mocks Trump after Team Canada wins 4 Nations Face-Off: 'You can't take our country'
Prime Minister fires back at U.S. President after incessant taunts about Canada becoming the '51st state'
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After being called the “Governor of Canada” countless times by Donald Trump, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finally dropped the gloves with the U.S. president following Team Canada’s 3-2 overtime win over the USA in the final of the 4 Nations Face-Off.
“You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game,” Trudeau posted to X after the match. His statement was a swipe at Trump’s pledge to turn Canada into America’s 51st state.
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Trudeau also re-shared Hayley Wickenheiser’s fiery post-game interview following Canada’s victory over the U.S. at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games.
“You know what?” Wickenheiser said when Don Cherry asked the former captain of the Canadian women’s team. “The Americans had our flag on their floor in the dressing room.”
As she drew in a breath, she said: “And now I want to know if they want us to sign it.”
“What she said,” Trudeau captioned the clip.
Trudeau’s comments came after he was caught on a hot mic earlier this month warning that Trump’s “51st state” jabs is “a real thing.”
“I suggest that not only does the Trump administration know how many critical minerals we have but that may even be why they keep talking about absorbing us and making us the 51st state. They’re very aware of our resources, of what we have and they very much want to be able to benefit from those,” Trudeau said of making Canada a U.S. state, according to Global News.
“Mr. Trump has it in mind that the easiest way to do it is absorbing our country and it is a real thing,” he continued.
Heading into Thursday night’s hockey battle, Trump tried to fire up Team USA with a call to the squad before they hit the ice.
“I’ll be calling our GREAT American Hockey Team this morning to spur them on towards victory tonight against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important, Fifty First State,” Trump posted to his Truth Social account.
Trump also teased Trudeau by referring to him once again as “governor” and inviting him to watch Thursday’s game along with other U.S. governors in Washington.
After the call, U.S.-born New York Rangers winger J.T. Miller said it was “awesome to get (Trump’s) support.”
“It’s a pretty big deal for him to take time out of his schedule to talk to us for five minutes. It’s just another one of those things where we’re kind of pinching ourselves this tournament,” TSN and The Athletic hockey contributor Chris Johnston posted on X.
Earlier in the week, Team USA general manager Bill Guerin told Fox News he “would love it if” Trump came to the final.
“We have a room full of proud American players and coaches and staff. And listen, we’re just trying to represent our country the best way we can,” Guerin said on Monday.
The first meeting between Canada and the U.S. Saturday night in Montreal immediately began with three fights in the first 10 seconds.
Canadian forward Brandon Hagel and Matthew Tkachuk fought two seconds into the first period, with Sam Bennett and Brady Tkachuk dropping the gloves a second later. Defenceman Colton Parayko then fought Miller.
Afterwards, the Tkachuk brothers told reporters that the fights were planned in advance in a “group chat” earlier in the day.
“We needed to send a message,” Matthew said after Team USA’s 3-1 win Saturday night. “We’re here in Montreal on a Saturday night. We want it to be our time, and that message started right from the get-go.”
“Yeah, there was a group chat going on today,” Brady added. “We just reaffirmed we were going to do that. I think Matthew’s fight to start it off was just such an energy boost. I think I was more excited, more nervous for my own. And then for (Miller) to cap it off against a big guy like that, he did a great job. It was a pretty awesome experience.”
The war of words continued, with Lightning forward Hagel telling reporters that Team Canada was “playing for the flag, not the cameras.”
“That’s a part of Canada that we have in there. We don’t need to initiate anything. We don’t have any group chats going on,” Hagel said Tuesday, according to Sports Illustrated.
“We’re going out there playing our game and then giving it everything and doing it for our country. We don’t need to initiate everything. We’re just going to play as hard as we can and do it for the flag on the chest.”
Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand also had some words for the Tkachuk brothers after Canada’s victory Thursday night.
“Sometimes when you shoot your mouth off in the media, it bites you. You can do that during the season, but when you’re playing best-on-best it’s different, and they got a little bit ahead of themselves,” Marchand told reporters post-game.
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