Colbert Calls Out Trump Press Sec for ‘Iceland’ Gaslighting Attempt

Late Show host Stephen Colbert called Karoline Leavitt a “dumbass” after the White House press secretary was caught lying about the “Iceland” blunder her boss made on the global stage.

During a speech on Wednesday at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, President Donald Trump at one point repeatedly referred to Greenland—the country he is dead-set on annexing, for national security and/or rare earth exploitation purposes—as “Iceland.”

Libbey Dean, a White House correspondent for NewsMax, was live-tweeting the WEF and as such noted, in a rather generous manner, that Trump “appeared to mix up Greenland and Iceland around three times.”

About an hour later, Leavitt used her official White House press secretary X account to quote-tweet Dean and claim, “No he didn’t, Libby [sic]. 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.”

Trump did at one juncture eloquently refer to Greenland as a “piece of ice,” but he also made the aforementioned “Iceland” blunder, multiple times.

Even X’s Community Notes featured jumped in to douse Leavitt’s brazen attempt at gaslighting, advising readers, “The Press Secretary is not telling the truth. Trump referred to Greenland as ‘Iceland’ multiple times.”

As for Colbert, during his Wednesday-night Late Show monologue, he recounted the exchange above before remarking, “That is some grade-A, Big Brother propaganda.

“As George Orwell wrote in 1984,” Colbert continued, “‘War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Karoline Leavitt is a dumbass.’”

Watch the segment below:

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— LateNighter (@latenightercom) January 22, 2026