Trump-Carney AI hockey video stirs anger while racking up views

A video shared by a popular account supportive of President Trump on the social platform X that depicts him repeatedly beating Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney with a hockey stick has gained traction this week amid an escalating trade fight between the U.S. and Canada.

The clip , which had garnered hundreds of thousands of views from reposts on X as of Tuesday, is an animation of an image shared by Trump on Truth Social on Sunday.

Its circulation online comes as Canada’s new retaliatory tariffs on a large swath of U.S. imports took effect on Tuesday morning.

The original artwork shared by the president over the weekend depicted him and the Canadian leader in hockey gear, with Carney lying on the ice and Trump leaning over him, saying, “Get up, Governor.”

The animated version of the image was first shared by an account titled Commentary Trump Daily Posts, which has no official ties to the president or the White House. The doctored clip depicts Trump yelling and striking Carney with his hockey stick until the Canadian leader collapses on the ice.

“President Trump just posted this image on Truth Social and we brought it to life!” the commentary account wrote in a post alongside the animation.

The fan account’s doctored video was quick to provoke anger online, much of it from familiar critics of the president. Many of those voices tied the clip to the president, even though the White House and Trump did not send out the video.

George Conway, a frequent critic of the president and the ex-husband of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, responded to a post that inaccurately made it appear as though the president shared the video himself.

“He’s deeply mentally ill,” Conway wrote in an X post on Monday evening that had more than 246,000 views as of Tuesday morning.

Political commentator and former sports broadcaster Keith Olbermann also slammed the video. It was not clear whether Olbermann was aware the video was produced by an account independent of the White House and Trump.

“If the animation in which Trump beats Carney with a hockey stick showed the reverse and were distributed by Carney… Trump and his criminal cult would be demanding Carney be arrested for threatening a head of state,” he wrote in an X post .

Olbermann added, “Canada should demand Trump’s arrest and extradition.”

Additionally, Sarah Longwell, the founder of Republican Voters Against Trump and the Republican Accountability Project, said it was “not that hard to see that Trump has been reduced to relying on AI to make him look tough and capable.”

“Because in reality he knows he looks like he’s weak and failing,” Longwell wrote on X in response to the photo animation. Her post had more than 32,000 views as of Tuesday morning.

Many of those recirculating the clip, including Longwell and Olbermann, were sharing a post by the author Amy Siskand that had more than 730,000 views as of Tuesday morning.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.

The president has shared a series of Truth Social posts critical of Carney and Canada on Truth Social in recent weeks amid the escalating trade fight between the two trading partners. Trump has repeatedly threatened to make Canada the 51st U.S. state and referred to Carney as a “governor.”

On Monday, the president posted a map of the U.S. and Canada covered in an American flag and the words “United States of America.”

Carney and other Canadian officials have brushed off the president’s insults and urged the U.S. to refocus on trade deal negotiations.

“When the Americans stop doing memes, stop throwing shade and stop trying to be tough, and start being serious about having those discussions, we can have those discussions,” the Canadian leader said last week , according to The Associated Press.

“It’s not constructive, but that’s their democracy,” Carney added.