President Trump appears to confuse Iceland and Greenland in Davos remarks
President Donald Trump appeared to confuse Greenland and Iceland during a speech in Davos, Switzerland.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump appeared to confuse Iceland and Greenland multiple times during his Jan. 21 speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
That moment came as President Trump ramped up pressure for the United States to acquire Greenland, a semi-autonomous region that is part of Denmark. He mistakenly referred to the much smaller Iceland, an independent island nation about 320 miles away in the North Atlantic Ocean.
In his speech, President Trump referred to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, saying, “I can tell you, they’re not here for us in Iceland.” “So yesterday our stock market had its first drop because of Iceland. So Iceland has already lost a lot of money. But that drop is peanuts compared to the gains we’ve seen.”
At another point in his speech, Trump said European leaders didn’t like him very much, referring to Iceland rather than Greenland. NATO allies are upset by President Trump’s desire to occupy Greenland rather than Iceland.
“I’m helping Europe. I’m helping NATO. And until the last few days, when I talked about Iceland, they loved me. They called me ‘Dad,’ right? Some very smart people said, ‘He’s our dad. He runs it,'” Trump said.
White House press secretary Caroline Levitt took issue with an ‘X’ reporter who warned against President Trump’s mention of Iceland. Levitt noted that President Trump repeatedly referred to Greenland as a “slice of ice” in his speech.
“In his written statements, he referred to Greenland as a ‘slice of ice,’ and that is what it is,” Levitt said. “You’re the only one mixing things up here.”
In one of them, President Trump said, “What I’m asking for is a piece of cold, inhospitable ice that can play an important role in world peace and world protection. That’s a very small ask for what we’ve been giving them for decades.”
However, while President Trump referred to “Iceland” at other points in his speech, he did not refer to it as a “piece of ice.”
This is not the first time President Trump has confused Iceland and Greenland. The day before his Davos speech, President Trump spoke at a White House briefing with reporters about his recent threat to impose tariffs on imports from eight European countries unless they supported his efforts to acquire Greenland, referring to Iceland instead of Greenland.
“Iceland, as an example, if there were no tariffs, they wouldn’t even talk to us about it,” Trump said.
In his speech at Davos, President Trump mentioned Greenland and delivered the news that European leaders were probably most happy about: They have no intention of using military force to take control of the region.
“There is no need to use force. We do not want to use force. We will not use force. All the United States wants is a place called Greenland,” Trump said, calling instead for “immediate negotiations” to acquire Greenland.
X Contact Joey Garrison at @joeygarrison.
