During his speech at the planet economical Forum in Davos, Donald Trump returned to his favourite topic: Greenland as "a part of ice", which the United States would love to take care of. The problem is, in key moments alternatively of Greenland, the U.S. President's mouth fell respective times... Iceland.
There were planet leaders sitting in the hall, there were instant recordings and stopcages on the web, and journalists began counting mistakes. According to a correspondent's account, 1 of Trump's U.S. stations was to confuse island names 3 times. After careful analysis of the recordings, at least 4 specified moments were counted.
Under average conditions, this could be considered a classical language lapsus, but we are talking about the President, who is just trying to push through a controversial plan to take over strategical territory in the Arctic and at the same time sends political signals to Copenhagen and Nuuk. In specified a context, even the "mistake of islands" ceases to be just a fun accident.
White home spokeswoman, "You're mixing things up here."
When a reporter reporting on the White House's work wrote that during her performance in Davos Trump he had confused Greenland respective times with Iceland, the reaction came rapidly – not from Davos itself, but from the White home spokesperson's account on platform X.
Carolina Leavitt decided not only to defend the President, but to reverse the function of the suspect and prosecutor. She suggested that there was no accident, and Trump simply called Greenland "a part of ice" due to the fact that that's what she thought this island looked like. In consequence to the journalist, she added a nibble "you're the 1 mixing in here," trying to present the full case as a media over-interpretation.
But the problem is, the recordings are ruthless. It is adequate to reproduce the passages of the speech to hear the president of the United States speaking of taking over the territory that lies between Canada and Europe, clearly uses the word "Iceland" alternatively than "Grenland". This is no longer a dispute over interpretation, it's about whether the White home wants to admit what actually came out of the speaker.
Iceland, Greenland and 52nd state. An accident?
The full communicative takes on an additional flavor if you remember what happened before Trump appeared. virtually a fewer days ago, a candidate for a fresh U.S. ambassador took the gag he called Iceland the 52nd state of the United States. For any Americans, it could be a "hehehe, it would be good to have more states." For Iceland, however, this is already a political signal to which the MFA reacted very seriously, demanding clarification.
Now in Davos, the president of the United States confuses Iceland with Greenland just erstwhile he explains to the planet how he imagines the future of this another territory. erstwhile may be a coincidence, twice a coincidence. But erstwhile a full series of "mistakes" appears in a short time in the same area of the map, the question of randomness ceases to be only theoretical.
Is it just unprepared and informative chaos around the White House? Or is it knowingly blurring the border between "the joke", "the accident" and offensive policy towards tiny states and dependent territories? The authoritative communicative goes to: "Nothing happened, the media are oversensitive". But in Reykjavík and Copenhagen no 1 is going to treat specified signals with a dull eye.
