White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is as committed as ever to promoting her boss’s beliefs—and his blunders.
Leavitt, 28, snapped at a reporter who noted that President Donald Trump, 79, appeared to confuse Greenland and Iceland during a rambling, at times incoherent speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
After NewsNation reporter Libby Deans posted on X that during his Davos remarks, Trump “appeared to mix up Greenland and Iceland around three times,” Leavitt issued a fiery response.
“No, he didn’t, Libby,” she wrote. “His written remarks referred to Greenland as a ‘piece of ice’ because that’s what it is. You’re the only one mixing anything up here.”
The failed congressional candidate included a screenshot of a Google search showing Greenland’s icy waters to bolster her claim.
But video of Trump’s remarks tells a different story. During the speech, the president repeatedly referred to Greenland as Iceland—a much smaller island roughly 200 miles away—as he lashed out at European allies for failing to meet his demands to acquire the Danish territory.
“I know we’d be there for them. I don’t know that they’d be there for us with all of the money we expend, with all of the blood, sweat and tears… They’re not there for us on Iceland, I can tell you,” Trump said.
“Their stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland.”
CNN media reporter Brian Stelter noted that Leavitt’s response appeared to hinge on a technicality.
“Intriguing: A NewsNation reporter pointed out that Trump ‘appeared to mix up Greenland and Iceland around three times,’” Stelter wrote on X. “Leavitt now claims ‘he didn’t,’ even though everyone heard him do it. But she’s pointing to ‘his written remarks’ instead of the video.”
Leavitt’s defensiveness could potentially be amped up after the president swiped at her at her own press briefing on Tuesday.
During a lengthy speech marking his first year back in office, Trump complained that his administration’s message about the economy wasn’t getting through—and suggested his staff might be at fault.
“We’ve had the best stock market in history, the best 401Ks in history. And we inherited a mess. The numbers that we inherited were way up. And now we brought them, almost all of them, way down,” he insisted. “I mean, I’m not getting—maybe I have bad public relations people, but we’re not getting it across.”
Trump’s country-swapping gaffe wasn’t the only head-turning moment in his Davos appearance, which came amid rising tensions between the United States and its European allies.
During the speech, the president ranted about wind farms, lashed out at Somalis in Minneapolis, repeated false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and veered into a discussion of American credit card debt.
He also argued that America should own Greenland because only the U.S. had the capacity to defend it, bizarrely suggesting that nations could not defend something they don’t own. Trump also invoked the German invasion of Denmark in World War II and criticized America for not seizing Greenland at that time.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has rejected his demands, emphatically, asserting his country’s sovereignty over the Arctic territory.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
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