It’s been a big week for Donald Trump in expressing interest in sports he hasn’t traditionally been associated with.
After the president announced that he planned to attend a New York Knicks NBA Finals game next week, he posted a remembrance of Claude Lemieux, the former hockey star who won four Stanley Cups during his career with three different teams. Lemieux died this week at age 60, in an apparent suicide.
“Claude Lemieux, a true legend of the game, and one of the fiercest competitors hockey has ever seen, has passed away,” Trump said on Truth Social on Thursday night. “Claude was a friend to the family, and a tremendous ‘Trump’ supporter.”
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“Claude will be missed by all who love winning and toughness,” the president added.
Aside from his repeated suggestion that Wayne Gretzky take over as “governor” of Canada once it becomes America’s “51st State,” Trump has not talked much about the game of hockey over the years, at least not until he called and then later hosted the gold medal-winning U.S. hockey team earlier this year. Lemieux did play for many years for the New Jersey Devils, when Trump was still based in New York, although he was Canadian and played on Canada’s national team.
President Trump Honors ‘Fierce’ Claude Lemieux After Hockey Star’s Death https://t.co/yQhijmIpLa
— TMZ (@TMZ) May 29, 2026
Similarly, while Trump has been spotted at New York Knicks games occasionally in the past, and is said to be friendly with Knicks owner James Dolan, he has never commented regularly on basketball, the way he often weighs in on baseball and football.
As pitched by the Daily Beast, Trump “has used the death of four-time Stanley Cup champion Claude Lemieux to tell people the hockey legend was one of his biggest supporters.”
Trump has been known, in turn, to say not-so-nice things upon the passings of people who were not supportive of him, like John McCain and Robert Mueller.
Photo courtesy of an X screenshot.
