President Donald Trump recently declared at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Switzerland that he would not use force to control Greenland, and he even backed off on tariff threats against European nations following talks with NATO leadership.
The official White House official X account shared an AI-generated image of Trump alongside a penguin, tapping into the ‘nihilist penguin’ meme trend. The image depicts Trump walking across an icy landscape alongside a penguin carrying an American flag. They are heading towards the mountains displaying the Greenland flag, accompanied by the cryptic caption: “Embrace the penguin”.
The clip has been circulating on social media since the penguin became a social media meme. The White House has decided to tap into the trend.
The “embrace the penguin” post received massive criticism online as many users pointed out the glaring geographical error of placing an Antarctic penguin in an Arctic landscape.
The post has sparked a wave of intriguing responses. Patriot Takes writes, “There are no penguins in Greenland. All Penguins live in the southern hemisphere except one species from the Galapagos Islands.”
Former Canadian Minister of Defence and Premier of Alberta, Jason Kenney commented to the post: “In the same week as his humiliating climb down in Greenland, he confused Iceland and Greenland multiple times, and now his staff is confusing Antarctica with Greenland.”
The penguin post is not the first time the US administration has used social media to signal its intentions for Greenland. A previous example was an AI-edited map that included Greenland, Canada, and Venezuela as US territories. The image depicted a digital alteration of an actual photograph taken during an August 2025 meeting with European leaders.
Similarly, a similar incident occurred a few days ago when the US president put an AI-generated image of himself, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The image showed Trump holding an American flag next to a sign that read: “Greenland-US territory est.2026).”
The analysts predict that the White House is using “meme diplomacy” to keep the Greenland issue in the public eye even as formal negotiations with Denmark and NATO remain tense.