Trump Claims Europe Calls Him ‘Daddy’ in Bizarre Davos Speech

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday, President Donald Trump repeated his call for U.S. control of Greenland, but confused the territory with its neighbor Iceland multiple times, and made a strange quip about being affectionately referred to as “daddy” by European leaders.

From the outset, Trump doubled down on his long-standing argument that the U.S. should have ownership rights over the vast Arctic island, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark. In his address he stated that the United States must “own” the territory, tying it to national security and NATO concerns. However, despite earlier fears, he publicly said he would not use military force to achieve that goal.

“I won’t use force,” Trump said, answering speculation about the possibility of military action. He reiterated that other mechanisms should be employed to secure Greenland for the United States, framing the effort as essential to countering Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic.

He reiterated those comments when asked by a reporter on why he was taking military intervention off the table. “I don’t think it’ll be necessary,” he said, before adding that believed “people are going to use better judgment.”

However, one of the most striking moments of the speech came when Trump appeared to conflate Greenland with Iceland in spite of pushing for ownership of it over the past year. “I’m helping NATO. And until the last few days, when I told them about Iceland, they loved me. They called me “Daddy” last time.

[A] very smart man said ‘he’s our daddy. He’s running it,’ I was like running it. I went from running it to being a terrible human being… And 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,” Trump added.

That “daddy” comment appears to echo an earlier remark made by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in a different context, which Trump seemed to have adapted for Davos. Rutte had joked that “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language,” when defending Trump’s use of an expletive to refer to the tensions between Israel and Iran in June.

He seemed to confuse the two island nations again when he said, “The problem with NATO is that we’ll be there for them, 100%, but I don’t know that they’d be there for us…They’re not there for us on Iceland,” the president said. “I can tell you, our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland.”

Trump’s remarks at the forum were not limited to Greenland. He also argued that U.S. contributions during World War II and afterward positioned America as indispensable to European security. Allied leaders attending Davos have, in separate remarks, reiterated Denmark’s firm stance that Greenland is not for sale and remains an integral part of the Danish Kingdom.