Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky is once again facing scrutiny after being photographed alongside U.S. President Donald Trump on the golf course. <\/p>\n
Trump shared the image on Truth Social, sparking a wave of reaction north of the border.<\/p>\n
For many Canadians, the photo rekindled frustration over Gretzky\u2019s ties to Trump, a relationship that has drawn criticism in recent years. On social media, some fans expressed disappointment, saying the image tarnished their memories of the man long celebrated as \u201cThe Great One.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved Wayne Gretzky. It was awful when Edmonton traded him. I watched his last game, and every time he hit the ice, the crowd went crazy, and they allowed the delay, and he circled the rink, acknowledging the love,\u201d one fan wrote. \u201cSeeing him like this is like losing a family member to a cult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another tweet read: \u201cI used to think Wayne Gretzky was awesome because he\u2019s the greatest hockey player who ever lived. Now I just think he\u2019s the greatest hockey player who ever lived. You\u2019re judged by the company you keep, Wayne. Keep smiling. The kid in me will find a new hero.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is not the first time Gretzky\u2019s friendship with Trump has stirred debate. Earlier this year, Gretzky told reporters he has \u201cno political power over the president or prime minister,\u201d stressing that his relationship with Trump is personal rather than political. The response from Canadians prompted Gretzky\u2019s wife, Janet Jones, to say her husband was heartbroken <\/a>by the backlash he had received\u00a0for the couple\u2019s friendship with Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n Wayne Gretzky and Janet Jones Gretzky attended Trump\u2019s presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., back in January. In 2009, Gretzky was named a Companion of the Order of Canada, but he has been criticized for not travelling to Ottawa for it.<\/p>\n \u201cWho knew Wayne Gretzky would go from passing the puck to passing the buck. Canada\u2019s biggest sellout,\u201d one fan wrote on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadian hockey legend Wayne Gretzky is once again facing scrutiny after being photographed alongside U.S. President Donald Trump…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-320506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}