Gary Bettman under fire from international community for aligning himself with President Trump

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is an update to our story concerning NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky and Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk joining President Donald Trump's new Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition.

For full context read the full story below.

UPDATE: The Guardian has released a scathing review of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and his decision to join President Trump's new Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition.

The Guardian points out that Bettman has made a complete 180 degree turn from his commitment to diversity and inclusion in the NHL by aligning himself with Trump.

"Diverse representation within inclusive environments is proven to advance innovation, creativity, and decision-making – all of which are critically important to the growth of the sport and our business,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman wrote in his introduction to the NHL’s first – and only, so far – diversity and inclusion report, which it released in 2022. “Recognizing these facts, we are working to better understand and accelerate our engagement across all layers of diversity – including nationality, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, and religion – and their nuances and intersections,” Bettman continued.

There's been little attention paid to this initiative since 2022 and The Gaurdian's Colin Horgan contends that the league is now acting hypocritically by aligning themselves with the President.

"Maybe the diversity and inclusion stuff doesn’t totally make sense to Bettman in 2025," Horgan writes. "Other North American sports have decided that they don’t have the stomach to fight the culture wars under Trump either, and NFL commission Roger Goodell is also on the White House sports council. But Bettman should give the league’s diversity policies time to grow, rather than deliberately reversing course, hurting hockey’s players and fans, and ultimately jeopardising the future success of the sport for everyone. If that’s too much to ask, at the very least, if he’s invited to join a club created by a hostile and retrograde president, he should by now have the smarts to just say no."

To me, this is not surprising in the least. Bettman is simply doing what he's always done... chase the almighty dollar.

In 2022, diversity and inclusion were a part of the cultural and popular conversation in the sports world. In 2025, for better or worse, they are not.

Bettman has only ever been interested in furthering the reach and the value of his league's teams. Did you think he ever actually cared about DEI, Pride or social justice? Give your head a shake...

I'm not saying that those virtues aren't worthwhile, I'm just saying that I don't look to the NHL and to Gary Freakin' Bettman as my moral compass. I expect Bettman to only do what's best for the NHL and for the owners of the league's 32 franchises. To expect him carry the flag, literally or figuratively, for your cause du jour is foolish.

Read below for our earlier report on this developing story.

American President Donald Trump has unveiled his new Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition featuring NHL heavy-hitters Wayne Gretzky, Matthew Tkachuk and Gary Bettman.

From The White House:

The revitalized President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition will create school-based programs to reward excellence in physical education and support the development of a Presidential Fitness Award — working in partnership with athletes, coaches, teams, and schools to champion access to fitness and healthy living for all Americans. The Council will also play an important role in restoring tradition to college athletics, including reforming the broken transfer portal and keeping men out of women’s sports.

The Council will include Executive Director Catherine Granito, Chair Bryson DeChambeau, Saquon Barkley, Gary Bettman, Nick Bosa, Harrison Butker, Cody Campbell, Roger Goodell, Wayne Gretzky, Nelly Korda, Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Mariano Rivera, Tony Romo, Annika Sörenstam, Tua Tagovailoa, Lawrence Taylor, Matthew Tkachuk, and Mariano Rivera.

Both Gretzky and Tkachuk have been public in their support for Trump in the past, with Gretzky going silent in recent months after receiving some blowback from Canadians. Bettman though, has seemingly always avoided making political statements both personally and in his role as NHL commissioner. If nothing else, it's interesting to see him involved in this new initiative and aligning himself with the President.