Trump’s 'Embrace the Penguin' post sparks international mockery over geographic blunder

Chinese state media was quick to mock the AI image as there are no penguins in Greenland

President Donald Trump and the White House became the center of an online firestorm this week after a viral social media post featuring a penguin drew widespread ridicule and international commentary. The image, shared on the White House’s official X account, was intended to link Trump’s renewed focus on Greenland to a popular internet meme — but critics said it also exposed a striking geographical error.

In the AI-generated graphic, Trump is shown walking beside a penguin holding a U.S. flag toward snowy mountains with the Greenland flag planted in the distance, captioned “Embrace the penguin.”

 

 

 

 

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The visuals reference the so-called “nihilist penguin” meme, which originated from a scene in Werner Herzog’s 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World showing a lone Adelie penguin wandering on the Antarctic ice.

The post quickly became fodder for mockery because penguins do not live in Greenland or anywhere in the Arctic, instead inhabiting regions of the Southern Hemisphere like Antarctica. Observers pointed out the glaring error, joking that the portrayal showed a fundamental lack of basic geographic knowledge.

The image was also seized on by China’s state media, which shared its own AI-generated video poking fun at the scene while highlighting the factual mistake. A Chinese media post depicted an exaggerated version of Trump dragging a reluctant penguin on a leash, adding to the viral spread of the meme.

 

 

 

 

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Even model Alana Hadid was quick to point out that there are no penguins in Greenland. "The fact that the WHITE HOUSE doesn’t know that there aren’t penguins in Greenland is just peak 2026."

Despite the backlash, the White House’s post appears to reflect Trump’s broader diplomatic messaging around Greenland, a topic the president has emphasized in recent months in the context of U.S. national security and Arctic strategy. What was likely meant as whimsical engagement with internet culture instead became a viral geography lesson and a fresh wave of social media satire.