Trump Doesn't Even Know What Greenland Is (w/ Rep. Sarah McBride) The Bulwark Podcast

[ihaveaquestion]

Jan 20, 2026
In his rambling mess of a speech at Davos, Trump confused Iceland and Greenland, and demonstrated that he doesn't understand how NATO works. The infamous draft-dodger also seemed to call Truman and Eisenhower "stupid" for not just taking Greenland after WWII. Nevertheless, his threat to somehow get the island is undermining our international rules-based order. Plus, the secret, imperfect alliance in Congress that is blocking anti-trans legislation, the growing Dem opposition to the DHS funding bill, and the need to fight the trust deficit in the country —and the anger-tainment that is driving it.

Delaware's Rep. Sarah McBride joins Tim Miller.

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:50 Trump’s Davos speech breaks as taping begins
1:12 Why presidential rhetoric matters
3:54 Kids bullied using Trump rhetoric
7:11 Setting up Sarah McBride
7:31 Sarah McBride joins the show
8:41 Trump Greenland and Davos fallout
9:39 Greenland NATO and real world consequences
13:02 An 80 year inflection point and Trump history rants
16:42 Inside the Denmark CODEL
18:32 Economic coercion tariffs and instability
22:27 Why the Greenland gambit fails
23:33 Dog sleds and reality on the ground
24:47 Ad break Trust and Will
26:20 Budget fights DHS and shutdown strategy
27:33 Secret Congress and stopping anti trans riders
30:29 Imperfect allies and coalition politics
37:25 The Axios trans gotcha question
46:18 What McBride has actually delivered
49:46 Faith in democracy and closing argument
51:11 Wrap up

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. MaddowBlog-White House insists Trump didn't say what everyone heard him say about Iceland

So many Republicans see the president as infallible that even inconsequential slip-ups must be denied in Orwellian fashion.

There’s a straight line from "Sharpiegate" to Karoline Leavitt denying that Trump accidentally referenced Iceland when he meant Greenland.

We’re apparently supposed to see Trump as infallible, so even minor and inconsequential slip-ups must be denied in Orwellian fashion. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-01-22T14:59:44.118Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/white-house-insists-trump-didnt-say-what-everyone-heard-him-say-about-iceland

Donald Trump’s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was an embarrassing mess. The American president peddled a series of absurd falsehoods, he needlessly targeted U.S. allies with baseless whining, and he reminded much of the Western world over the course of an hour and a half why the Trump-led United States has seen its international standing collapse.

But one part of the Republican’s weird, meandering remarks generated attention for an unexpected reason.

Trump: “I'm helping Europe. I'm helping NATO, and until the last few days, when I told them about Iceland, they loved me. They called me daddy…. But now what I'm asking for is a piece of ice, cold and poorly located, that can play a vital role in world peace and world protection"

— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.com) 2026-01-21T16:07:38.233Z

.....It would have been easy for the White House simply to acknowledge that the president had misspoken. Since everyone misspeaks from time to time, this likely would have generated very little attention.

But that’s not what happened. The New York Times reported:

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, denied that Mr. Trump had misspoken, responding in a social media post to a reporter who wrote that he had appeared to mix the countries up multiple times.

‘No he didn’t,’ she wrote to the reporter. ‘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.’

In other words, Leavitt would have us believe that when Trump said “Iceland” four times, he was really commenting on “ice land.” As in a land of ice.

In context, that is obviously preposterous. The Orwellian pushback, however, was oddly familiar.....

When news outlets noted the president’s error, Trump took great offense, insisting he was right, despite the obvious fact that he was mistaken. It set in motion a series of increasingly ridiculous events, culminating in Trump displaying a map to which he literally took a pen, drawing a bump onto the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast so he could make the scientific prediction conform retroactively to his mistake. (The mess became known as “Sharpiegate.”)

Leavitt’s line on the president’s “Iceland” reference is a page from the same book. Since Trump’s loyalists insist he is incapable of being wrong, even minor, inconsequential slip-ups have to be rejected and denied.

The tactics make the White House and its allies look worse. By all appearances, they don’t care.