“He meant to say Greenland,” the secretary of state told lawmakers, contradicting the White House. “But I think we’re all familiar with presidents that have verbal stumbles.”
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WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted that his boss in a high-profile speech to world leaders last week confused Iceland and Greenland, contradicting a denial from the president’s chief spokesperson.
During a Jan. 28 congressional hearing, Rubio acknowledged that President Donald Trump mixed up the two island nations while addressing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The swap was notable, given heightened tensions among NATO allies amid U.S. threats to acquire Greenland, a resource-rich island territory of Denmark. Iceland, by contrast, is a much smaller, independent country about 200 miles away.
“They’re not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you,” Trump said in his speech, referring to other NATO countries. “I mean, our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So Iceland has already cost us a lot of money.”
He later said, “I’m helping Europe. I’m helping NATO. And until the last few days, when I told them about Iceland, they loved me.”
Immediately after Trump’s remarks, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted no mistake had been made.
“His written remarks referred to Greenland as a ‘piece of ice’ because that’s what it is,” Leavitt wrote on social media.
Rubio’s comments disputed Leavitt. The former Florida senator told Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, that Trump indeed “meant to say Greenland.”
He shrugged off the mistake, while taking an apparent swipe at former President Joe Biden, who was also prone to gaffes.
“I think we’re all familiar with presidents that have verbal stumbles,” Rubio said. “We’ve had presidents like that before. Some made a lot more than this one.”
Zachary Schermele is a congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social.