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** OPINION
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** Trump misspoke at Davos. Karoline Leavitt told reporters not to believe their ears.
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President Donald Trump addresses the audience during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Greenland? Iceland? What is President Donald Trump talking about?

On Wednesday, Trump spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. There’s plenty — and I mean plenty — to go over.

But one of the more startling things that stood out was Trump confusing Greenland and Iceland several times during his speech.

As Mediaite’s Joe DePaolo wrote ([link removed]) , “In an awkward 90-second portion of his lengthy address to economic titans from around the world, the president mentioned Iceland four times when he very clearly seemed to be referring to Greenland — which he is trying to acquire.”

Trump said during his speech, “I’m helping Europe, I am helping NATO, and until the last few days when I told them about Iceland, they loved me.”

He added, “The problem with NATO is that we’ll be there for them, 100%, but I’m not sure that they’ll be there for us. They’re not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you. Our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland. So Iceland’s already cost us a lot of money.”

NewsNation White House correspondent Libbey Dean tweeted ([link removed]) , “During his @wef remarks, President Trump appeared to mix up Greenland and Iceland around three times.”

Actually, as you can see above, the number of times Trump mixed up the countries was four. Still, Dean’s tweet did not sit well with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Leavitt tweeted to Dean ([link removed]) , “No he didn’t, Libby. 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.”

Does Leavitt not realize that Trump’s speech was aired live and that you can find video of his remarks that clearly show him saying “Iceland?” There’s a difference between Trump’s “written” remarks and what he actually said on stage before the entire world.

As former ABC News reporter Terry Moran tweeted:

It's on video for the whole world to see, @PressSec.

You are literally Orwellian.

“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final and most essential command.”

That last sentence is from George Orwell’s “1984.”

And that’s kind of the point here.

Yes, some might say, “What’s the big deal here? Maybe Trump was trying not to sound robotic and he went a tad off-script and somehow slipped up by saying Iceland when he clearly meant Greenland.”

But here’s the deal: Reporters covering this speech should point out the error. Meanwhile — and this is the larger concern — Leavitt losing her cool and trying to gaslight a reporter by saying the reporter didn’t hear what the world clearly heard only makes Leavitt and the administration look more deceitful and, quite frankly, shady. Somehow, Leavitt’s remarks made the matter even worse.

A MESSAGE FROM POYNTER
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Save $10 per entry for the 2026 Poynter Journalism Prizes if you enter by the early bird deadline of Jan. 31. The Prizes honor the best in U.S. journalism from 2025 in 12 categories, including new prizes for reporting on climate change and poverty. Entry fees rise to $85 after Jan. 31. The final contest deadline is Feb. 13.

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** Wait, there’s more
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President Donald Trump, left, speaks in Switzerland while MS NOW “Morning Joe” co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough listen in. (Courtesy: MS NOW)

The Greenland-Iceland kerfuffle was only the — pardon the pun — tip of the iceberg when it came to Trump’s speech.

Fact-checkers had to work furiously just to keep up with everything Trump said.

Poynter’s PolitiFact has “Fact-checking Donald Trump's Davos speech on Greenland, US economy.” ([link removed])

Meanwhile, MS NOW’s “Morning Joe” went beyond their normal four-hour timeslot to carry Trump’s remarks, and co-host Joe Scarborough was masterful in pointing out the lies, misleading statements and bizarre comments made by Trump.

One remark that stood out was Trump saying, “I did more for NATO than any other person, alive or dead.” He then questioned if NATO would support the U.S. the way the U.S. supports NATO.

Scarborough said, “Has he driven down to the 9/11 memorial and museum? That’s in New York City, by the way. Because that points out that on Sept. 12, 2001, the day after the 9/11 attacks on America, NATO met in an emergency session — now listen to this — for the first and only time in NATO’s history, for the first and only time in NATO’s history, NATO invoked Article 5. That’s a century. Invoked Article 5. All 18 of the United States allies in NATO stated they would support America’s response to the attacks. … One NATO country after another … sent troops to fight alongside the United States.”

“Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski said the speech was a “litany of factually incorrect statements.”


** Her view
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Whoopi Goldberg, co-host of ABC’s “The View,” pointed to Trump’s latest gaffes mixing up Greenland and Iceland as further proof that his mental fitness is in question.

“25th Amendment, it’s time!” Goldberg said to cheers from the live audience.

Goldberg said she is “uncomfortable” with Trump being the leader of the free world.

“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin asked Goldberg, “You believe at this point that the president of the United States may not have his full faculty?"

Goldberg said, “I felt that before now.”


** Post pushes back
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A federal judge in Virginia ruled Wednesday that the U.S. government cannot look at the electronic devices recently seized from a Washington Post reporter until the courts first decide that the search was legal.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Post filed a motion ([link removed]) arguing that the seizures violated the First Amendment.

On Jan. 14, the FBI used a search warrant to enter the Virginia home of Post reporter Hannah Natanson. They seized her phone and two laptops — one of which was issued by the Post and another that was her own personal computer. They also took her Garmin watch. Natanson and the Post are not the target of the FBI’s investigation. The warrant said law enforcement is investigating Aurelio Perez-Lugones, a system administrator who has a top-secret security clearance and has been accused of accessing and taking home classified intelligence reports.

In their filing Wednesday, the Post wrote, “The outrageous seizure of our reporter’s confidential newsgathering materials chills speech, cripples reporting, and inflicts irreparable harm every day the government keeps its hands on these materials. We have asked the court to order the immediate return of all seized materials and prevent their use. Anything less would license future newsroom raids and normalize censorship by search warrant.”

In his ruling, Magistrate Judge William B. Porter wrote that the Post and Natanson had shown “good cause” to maintain the “status quo” while the case was sorted out in court.

The Post’s Perry Stein wrote ([link removed]) , “It is exceptionally rare for law enforcement officials to conduct searches at reporters’ homes. The law allows such searches, but federal regulations intended to protect a free press are designed to make it more difficult to use aggressive law enforcement tactics against reporters to obtain the identities of their sources. The search marked the first time the government has raided a journalist’s home as part of a national security leak investigation, First Amendment advocacy groups have noted.”


** Scheduling conflicts
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Last Sunday, CBS’s “60 Minutes” finally ran that story on the notorious prison in El Salvador where the U.S. was sending some deported men. New CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss had initially pulled the story a day before it was set to air. Weiss’ decision set off a firestorm inside and outside of CBS News, including “60 Minutes” correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi calling the decision “political.”

After nearly a month on hold, the segment aired Sunday, but as I mentioned earlier this week, a lot of people would likely miss it. That’s because it was up against the NFL playoff game between the Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears (two huge markets). That game figured to draw a huge audience.

Well, no surprise, but the viewership for last Sunday’s “60 Minutes” was way down. According to Nielsen, Sunday’s program drew 4.9 million total viewers. The Guardian’s Jeremy Barr noted ([link removed]) that the show averaged 8.32 million viewers in the 2024-2025 season.

Meanwhile, CNN media reporter Brian Stelter tweeted ([link removed]) , “CBS also knew Sunday's episode would be low rated, so for Nielsen measurement purposes CBS called the show ‘60 Minutes Presents’ so that Sunday's ratings won't weigh down the season average for ‘60 Minutes.’ This is a labeling trick all the networks use at various times.”


** Getting political
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Former NBC Sports sideline reporter Michele Tafoya before an NFL game in New Orleans in November of 2021. (AP Photo/Tyler Kaufman)

Michele Tafoya, the former longtime NFL sideline reporter on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” announced that she will run for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota as a Republican. Tafoya, 61, last worked on an NFL sideline for Super Bowl LVI in 2022. Since then, she has been especially outspoken politically, echoing conservative talking points.

In her slickly produced announcement ([link removed]) , Tafoya can be seen in her past job interviewing star quarterbacks such as Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning. She tweeted, “For years, I walked the sidelines when the stakes were the highest, and that job taught me how leadership really works. I’m running for U.S. Senate to bring that experience to Washington and deliver the real results Minnesota deserves.”

Hey, I’m a sports guy, but I’m not sure I’d say football is really where the “stakes were the highest” and that you can learn leadership by asking Brady or Manning what adjustments they made at halftime. Figuring out health care and immigration and wars across the globe seem slightly more significant than picking up a first down. Then again, Tafoya knows football sells.

Tafoya is semi-famous, but joins a crowded field to get the Republican nomination. From there, it could be an uphill battle to knock off a Democrat. Minnesota hasn’t elected a Republican senator since 2002.


** A new kind of media newsletter
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There are a lot of media newsletters out there. And there’s a new one coming out. This particular media newsletter is about … uh, media newsletters.

Mediaite, the media site founded by Dan Abrams, has introduced a new media newsletter called One Sheet ([link removed]) .

Mediaite describes it this way: “This is a new daily, five-minute briefing on what the dozens of media newsletters are actually saying — the scoops, arguments, and fault lines shaping the media in real time. Not just aggregation. Interpretation. The goal is simple: one place, one newsletter, to see the media conversation behind the headlines — who’s driving it, who’s missing it, and why it matters.”

One Sheet will be written by the Mediaite editor Colby Hall. It is expected to be published on weekdays at 11 a.m. Eastern. A subscription costs $8 a month or $80 a year, although there are early sign-up specials now.

I’m a fan of Mediaite. I visit the site regularly throughout the day. As someone who writes a daily media newsletter, I hope Mediaite’s new newsletter will introduce readers to other newsletters without taking audiences away from other newsletters.

Abrams told The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum ([link removed]) , “We’re not trying to take away newsletter business, we’re trying to highlight the ones that are most interesting.”


** Media tidbits
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* The Washington Post’s Abbie Cheeseman, Hazem Balousha, Siham Shamalakh and Scott Nover with “Israel kills 3 journalists in Gaza, including CBS News contributor.” ([link removed])
* The Associated Press’ David Bauder with “This just in from The New York Times: Its first 2-player game, and an evolving business model.” ([link removed])
* For Poynter, Kaleigh Rogers with “In 2020, FiveThirtyEight published a chart that was weaponized to spread election disinformation. It still haunts me.” ([link removed])
* For the Columbia Journalism Review, Lucy Schiller with “The NPR and Colorado Stations That Took Trump to Court.” ([link removed])


** Hot type
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* Well done story about the Buss family, owners of the NBA Los Angeles Lakers, from ESPN’s Baxter Holmes: “How Buss family infighting drove the $10B sale of the Lakers.” ([link removed])


** More resources for journalists
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* New managers: Get the critical skills you need to help forge successful paths to leadership in journalism, media and technology. Apply now ([link removed]) .

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .

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