Mumbai: On January 24 (Saturday), the US White House’s official handle on the social media platform X posted an AI-generated image showing US President Donald Trump accompanying a penguin on the land of Greenland. The image, which went viral on the internet, features the now-famous “Nihilist Penguin.”
In the picture, the penguin is seen carrying the American flag in one of its wings and walking alongside President Trump. The post has garnered over 13 million views and continues to go viral, though there is one glaring inaccuracy — there are no penguins in Greenland or at the North Pole.
The “Nihilist Penguin,” whose video of walking towards mountains went viral earlier, is actually from Antarctica, not Greenland. In its pursuit of acquiring Greenland from Denmark, the Trump administration appears to be using every possible means to push the agenda, even featuring a penguin native to the Southern Hemisphere. While the visual impressed many, it has also drawn heavy trolling on social media.
Users took time to fact-check the Trump administration, with several pointing out that penguins do not inhabit the North Pole and sharing images of the global distribution of penguins. Some users humorously decoded President Trump’s new “adventure,” with handles like LastKnown Survivor and Scott Rech asking, “Wait, so Antarctica is next on the acquisition list?” and “Are we making a play for Antarctica too?” respectively.
Another user, Tobias Huch, shared an edited image showing President Trump walking alongside a polar bear — an animal native to the Northern Hemisphere — suggesting the White House replace the penguin in its post.
Meanwhile, the Department of War Rapid Response’s official handle also posted an image showing officers from various US military branches accompanying the “Nihilist Penguin” in Greenland. This post, too, attracted heavy trolling, with one user, BadTrumpQuips, asking, “Why are the service members kidnapping what looks like a child, since there are no penguins in the Arctic? Are they taking it to Mar-a-Lago?”
