U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he attends a meeting with oil industry executives, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 9, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Critics across the internet tore into President Donald Trump’s impromptu meeting with reporters on Friday.
Trump took time out from a meeting to pressure oil executives to invest in the freshly decapitated nation of Venezuela. The president's stream-of-consciousness gave commenters on social media plenty to talk about. This include Trump’s admission that he is still actively lobbying for a Nobel Peace Prize — and possibly willing to accept it second-hand from another winner.
When asked by a reporter If he would change his view on Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado running the country if she would give him her Nobel Peace Prize Trump answered: “Well, I'm going to have to speak to her. She might be involved in some aspect of it. I can't think of anybody in history that should get the Nobel prize more than me.”
“Trump's fixation with the Nobel Peace Prize is embarrassing,” said journalist Bruno Toledo on X. “All of this because Obama … has one.”
“Infantilized and delusional,” posted another X user. “Trump has zero awareness of how stupid he sounds. He can’t be president. He never could. He’s like a baby grabbing for a bottle.”
Other critics pounced on the president’s willingness to make false claims that are easily debunked with an internet search. When asked about his opposition to renewable energy wind turbines, for example, Trump pointed to China as an example, saying: “All you have to do is say to China, how many windmill areas do you have in China? They are not able to find any. They don’t have windmills. I have told my people we will not approve windmills. We will not approve any windmills in this country.”
But China is a world leader in both wind turbine production and usage.
“It literally took me nine seconds to find this,” said one X user posting a search result showing a map of hundreds of wind farms across China.
“The President of Dips——,” tweeted Ron Filipkowski of liberal group MeidasTouch.
Other commenters seized on Trump’s contentions about seizing land in Denmark’s territory of Greenland. At one point in the press conference Trump disparaged Denmark’s claim to the island, saying: “The fact they had a boat land there 500 years ago does not mean they own the land. We will be doing something with Greenland—the nice way, or the more difficult way.”
European group Communications Deputy Jack Montgomery pointed out that Trump’s argument disembowels U.S. claims to its own land.
“The most gratingly smug liberals on this platform are going to spend the next 24 hours lavishing thousands of likes on posts about this featuring the Mayflower,” Montgomery wrote on X.