"A piece of ice, cold and badly situated" Trump repeatedly confuses Greenland with Iceland
In his speech to the WEF in Davos, US President Donald Trump repeatedly confused Greenland with Iceland. He didn't notice the obvious mistake until the very end.
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- During his speech at the WEF in Davos, US President Donald Trump said "Iceland" several times, although he meant "Greenland".
- Trump did not notice the obvious mistake until the very end.
- One explanation for this could be the linguistic proximity of "Iceland" to "ice". Trump had previously referred to Greenland as "a chunk of ice" on several occasions.
In his energetic plea for the USA to acquire Greenland, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly confused the island, which belongs to Denmark, with the island state of Iceland. "I've always helped Nato, and they liked me, until I approached them recently about Iceland," he said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday.
"They are not there for us in Iceland," he said, referring to Nato. "Our stock markets have collapsed because of Iceland, Iceland has already cost us a lot of money," Trump continued, without realizing his obvious slip of the tongue.
Buying a lump of ice
One explanation for this could be the linguistic proximity of "Iceland" to "ice". Trump had previously referred to Greenland several times as "a chunk of ice" that he wanted to "acquire" for the USA for strategic reasons. "All I'm asking for is a piece of ice - cold and poorly located," Trump said, as if he were talking about a property as in a previous life. "It can play an important role with regard to world peace," he added.
"We want to have Greenland, including all property rights and legal claims," Trump emphasized. To be able to defend it, you need ownership. "You can't defend it on the basis of a lease," said Trump, once again using the vocabulary of the real estate world.
"How stupid were we to do this?"
Trump wanted to hold several talks on Greenland in Davos, but initially it was not known with whom. He went on to argue that the USA had already defended Greenland against Germany during the Second World War. "After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that?" he said.
Trump rejected possible claims to mineral resources such as rare earths. "There are so many rare earths that they are not 'rare' earths at all," said Trump. In any case, this is not the reason why the USA needs Greenland. This "huge, unsecured island" is "part of North America" anyway.
