Friday, November 8, 2024

Wayne Gretzky attends Donald Trump’s U.S. election party wearing a ‘MAGA’ hat, draws mixed reaction online: ‘Truly disappointing’

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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has touted himself as the “greatest” president in American history, appears to have a fan in the “The Great One” himself.

On his way to victory over Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s highly-publicized U.S. election, Trump held a party at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Among the guests was his family, political supporters and a variety of high-profile allies including Elon Musk, UFC president Dana White and 2024 U.S. Open champ Bryson DeChambeau.

Also attending the exclusive party at Trump’s private Florida-based resort and club was NHL legend Wayne Gretzky alongside his family, including his wife, Janet, his son, Trevor, his daughter, Paulina, and her husband and professional golf star Dustin Johnson.

The family posed for a picture, which Paulina shared on her Instagram story on Wednesday.

Executive VP of the Trump Organization, Larry Glick, later posted a slideshow on Instagram, with the lead photo featuring Gretzky rocking a white and gold “Make America Great Again” hat.

On Wednesday, Wayne’s wife, Janet, posted her own “congratulations” message to Trump on her personal Instagram page, praising the U.S. president-elect while expressing gratitude for his friendship and leadership.

“Congratulations Mr. President Donald J Trump, You did it, You deserved it, you earned every bit of it. The world is a better place to have you as our Leader, Proud to be an American. Thank you for being such a great friend. May God keep watching over you. Love our family to yours!” her caption read.

Though the jarring visuals may cause some to look twice — or three, four, five times — this development shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone as Gretzky, much like many wealthier, middle-aged white men, has a history of supporting conservative candidates on both sides of the border.

Among those in Canadian political circles that Gretzky threw his hat behind were former Prime Minister Stephen Harper (who was ousted by Justin Trudeau in 2015) and current mayor of Brampton, Ont., Patrick Brown, when he was battling Doug Ford and others to be leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservative party in 2014.

“The Great One” was also seen chumming up with Trump on a golf course in 2020 while he shot a round with his son-in-law Dustin Johnson.

Johnson, a former Masters champion who left the PGA for Saudi-run LIV Golf in June 2022, appears to have the closest relationship with Trump out of the whole Gretzky family, mainly due to his and Trump’s shared love for golf.

The Daily Mail reported in August 2023 that Johnson claims he’s known Trump for years and that the two share a pretty good friendship.

“I won Doral when it was there, at Trump,” Johnson said of his win at the WGC Cadillac Championship at the Trump-owned National Doral Golf Club in Miami.

“He’s in Palm Beach, so we play a good bit of golf together. We’ve had a nice friendship over the years.” Johnson said, adding that he’s known Trump “for quite a while.”

Johnson and his wife, Paulina, also attended the same Halloween party as Trump in 2021.

Despite the fairly publicized connection between Gretzky’s family and Trump, many were stunned upon finding out just how much of a supporter the former is, with some taking to social media to vent their disgust and frustration with the situation, hockey culture as a whole, and with Gretzky himself.

Amid the backlash during this divisive political climate there’s also, of course, plenty who backed Gretzky and his support of Trump.

Many of them also took to social media to chime in.

Gretzky isn’t the first all-time hockey great to openly support Trump. As a couple of the posts above noted, Bobby Orr — widely regarded as the greatest defenseman in NHL history and arguably the second or third best play ever — endorsed Trump’s re-election bid in 2020.

The Boston Bruins legend took out a full-page ad in the New Hampshire Union Leader, calling Trump “the kind of teammate I want.”

Gretzky, meanwhile, is literally nicknamed the “Great One” because of his standing as the consensus greatest player in NHL history. He holds or shares over 50 NHL records including basically all of the game’s major individual marks — career regular season goals, career regular season assists, regular season points, career playoff goals, career playoff assists, career playoff points and others.

The Brantford, Ont., native spent most of the first three decades of his life in Canada, but was traded from Edmonton to Los Angeles in 1988 and has lived in the United States for a good chunk of the 36 years since that deal.

Gretzky maintains dual citizenship in both the U.S. and Canada.

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