Summary
- Trump called Alaska "Russia" at the summit.
- Mistook St. Petersburg’s historical name, Leningrad.
- World leaders joked about his geographic confusion.
- Mentioned traveling to Russia while in Alaska.
During Thursday's European Political Community meeting in Copenhagen, Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama was captured on camera making fun of French President Emmanuel Macron and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
“You should make an apology … to us because you didn’t congratulate us on the peace deal that President Trump made between Albania and Azerbaijan,”
Rama told Macron, leading Aliyev to burst out laughing.
“I am sorry for that,”
Macron joked.
“I solved wars that was unsolvable. Azerbaijan and Albania, it was going on for many, many years, I had the prime ministers and presidents in my office,”
he said during an appearance on Fox News last month.
When discussing his attempts to ease the long-standing tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Trump has frequently misidentified Armenia and Albania.
Trump also ruined the name of one South Caucasus nation and completely confused the other when he remarked,
"We settled Aber-baijan and Albania,"
during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
To be precise: The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to put an end to decades of conflict and deepen their relations with Washington as part of an agreement mediated by Trump at the White House in August. The Republican leader, who is running for a Nobel Peace Prize, praised the agreement as a significant diplomatic win.
Since taking office again this year, he has made repeated claims that he had mediated the end of seven conflicts, a claim that the Associated Press has fact-checked and found to be untrue. The wars between Egypt and Ethiopia and Serbia and Kosovo are among the conflicts that Trump has claimed to have ended. Despite their differences, those nations have not lately engaged in combat.
The White House's assertion that Trump helped defuse tensions with Pakistan in May has been denied by India.
The confusion between Armenia and Albania is not the first time Trump has displayed a poor understanding of geography.
On the campaign road in 2023, he once made a mistake and referred to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as “the leader of Turkey.” He also claimed that his country had a “front” with Russia. (Hungary and Turkey are not geographically next to Russia.)
And ahead of a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in August, Trump said, “We’re going to Russia. It’s going to be a big deal.” The summit took place in Alaska, a U.S. state.
What exact remark sparked the joke among world leaders?
The additional comment that led to jokes being made with other world leaders at the summit was U.S. President Donald Trump's referencing Alaska as Russia. He was saying there was a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which will be in an "Alaska meeting."
To be more clear, Trump said he was "going to Russia" for the meeting or that the summit was in Russia. Afterward, the other world leaders shared a laugh about this behind the scenes.
This geography confusion over Alaska, which is a U.S. state and originally purchased from Russia in 1867, became a funny running commentary between the world leaders at the summit.
This also builds off a previous comment from Trump about how he has made some mistakes or gaffes in representing the U.S. and in his public speeches that have become a hallmark of his public persona.