The Olympic gold-medal game ended on a knife edge, but the postgame politics landed with all the subtlety of a slap shot to the ribs. President Donald Trump’s White House watched Team USA beat Canada 2–1 in overtime, then celebrated the win by dragging former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau back into the timeline with an “eagle vs. goose” meme that looked less like sports banter and more like an official sneer.
There’s a reason it ricocheted across X so quickly. It’s not just that Americans love beating Canada in hockey—though they do. It’s that this administration can’t resist turning even a clean, cinematic national moment into a punchline aimed at an adversary, real or imagined.
The White House account reposted Justin Trudeau’s year-old line—“You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game”—and answered it with an image of a bald eagle dominating a Canada goose. In another era, that would have been the kind of thing an intern would mock up as a joke and then wisely delete. Here, it was the government’s voice.
To understand why Justin Trudeau’s quote was waiting like a bookmarked insult, you have to rewind to February 2025. After Canada beat the United States 3–2 in overtime to win the 4 Nations Face-Off in Boston, Justin Trudeau took to X and jabbed at Donald Trump: “You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game.” ABC News noted that the dig landed amid heightened U.S.-Canada tensions and Donald Trump’s fixation on talking about Canada as a potential “51st state.”
https://t.co/kOiCXdVMao pic.twitter.com/ZIiychKPoo
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 22, 2026
Now, the irony: Justin Trudeau isn’t even prime minister anymore. CNN reported Mark Carney was sworn in as Canada’s prime minister after Justin Trudeau stepped down in March 2025. Yet Donald Trump’s White House chose to swing at Trudeau anyway, as if the point wasn’t diplomacy or accuracy but the satisfaction of finally getting the last word.
If you’re Canadian, that might feel like a weird kind of American condescension—like being told you’re still in an argument you’ve already left. If you’re American, it’s the familiar Donald Trump-era impulse to treat international relationships like reality-TV rivalries: someone must be mocked, someone must be flattened, someone must be seen losing.
The thing the meme tries to hijack is genuinely worth savoring on its own.
Team USA’s men beat Canada 2–1 in overtime for Olympic gold, ending the United States’ men’s hockey gold drought that dates back to 1980. Matt Boldy scored six minutes into the game, Canada’s Cale Makar tied it at 18:16 of the second period, and Jack Hughes buried the winner early in overtime. That’s not manufactured drama; it’s an instant classic with real stakes, real nerves, and a real sense of history being nudged forward.
So why not let the athletes have their moment without stapling a geopolitical snarl to it?
Thats cute pic.twitter.com/23noHnYVAQ
— Mr. James 🍄 (@mrjamesports) February 22, 2026
Because the current White House doesn’t really do uncomplicated joy. It does messaging—loud, tribal, instantly shareable. Al Jazeera reported that the post stirred controversy, with some Canadians rejecting the image and questioning why a government account would lean into such aggressive symbolism after a sporting event. That reaction isn’t delicate. It’s what happens when the line between celebration and provocation gets smeared by design.
There’s also something telling in how quickly an athletic triumph becomes a proxy battlefield for political grievance. The meme isn’t about hockey so much as it’s about dominance, the idea that beating Canada on the ice should translate into a broader cultural victory—one you can screenshot and circulate like proof of national superiority.
Hockey offered the U.S. a rare, almost quaint gift: a unifying win that didn’t require a villain beyond the scoreboard. The White House looked at that and decided it needed an aftertaste—sharp, sarcastic, and unmistakably Trumpian.
EAST ALASKA JUST GOT OWNED pic.twitter.com/RaQjZBvNrU
— Alaska (@Alaska0420) February 22, 2026
Inquisitr has reached out to Donald Trump and Justin Trudeau’s reps for comments.
