Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., just dropped a major critique on Capitol Hill, expressing serious concern after President Trump repeatedly confused two major islands during a recent speech, claiming the entire Republican party is allowing him to “decompensate” in public, as per The Hill. She went after the entire government apparatus and the Republican party, claiming they are willing to stand by and watch the president behave erratically in front of the whole world without doing anything.
The geographical mixup that triggered this outburst happened while the president was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. President Trump repeatedly mistook the two islands, confusing Greenland, which is a semiautonomous Danish territory, with Iceland.
The president was discussing NATO when the confusion started. He specifically mentioned the islands, saying, “They’re not there for us on Iceland, that I can tell you.” He even bizarrely linked Iceland to the stock market, claiming the country was already costing the U.S. a lot of money. “I mean, our stock market took the first dip yesterday because of Iceland, so Iceland has already cost us a lot of money,” the president stated.
This is a pretty scathing accusation, and it definitely raises questions about political standards
The president then tried to talk about helping Europe and NATO, but the confusion continued. He said, “I’m helping Europe, I’m helping NATO and until the last few days, when I told them about Icelnd, they loved me.”
The White House immediately jumped into damage control mode. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt tried to downplay the whole situation on X. Leavitt claimed the president was actually referring to Greenland as a “piece of ice.” While President Trump did call the Danish territory a piece of ice during his Davos remarks, he clearly referred to Greenland as Iceland multiple times, making the geographic error pretty hard to dismiss completely.
Ocasio-Cortez emphasized that the president’s actions have been “increasingly erratic.” She finds the behavior “alarming,” especially because she feels “everyone’s pretending that this is normal.” “I think that for our European partners and for our global partners, I think what they also see is the result of not just one man, but also the entire government apparatus and a party that is willing to watch someone decompensate in front of the world and do nothing about it,” she stated.
Ocasio-Cortez, who is herself considered a potential 2028 presidential contender, stressed that she doesn’t know what’s exactly going on, but she thinks applying an “even standard” would be incredibly helpful.
This whole discussion is taking place against the backdrop of presidential fitness concerns. President Trump turns 80 in June, making him the oldest president to be sworn in last January. This happened after former President Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential campaign earlier due to concerns about his own fitness for office. And AOC isn’t the first one to spot this; former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham claimed recently that the president appears to be “mentally slipping.”
Published: Jan 22, 2026 10:00 am