Edi Rama blasts media for twisting Trump joke at Copenhagen Summit

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama hit back at international media coverage on Thursday, accusing outlets of distorting a lighthearted remark he made at the European Political Community summit in Copenhagen.

Why is this important: The episode highlights how a casual joke about U.S. President Donald Trump’s Armenia–Albania mix-up was amplified and distorted into global headlines, overshadowing the substance of the summit.

Context: During an exchange with French President Emmanuel Macron and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Rama jokingly said Macron owed him an apology for failing to congratulate Albania on a “peace deal” brokered by Trump. The remark was a tongue-in-cheek reference to Trump’s repeated public confusion between Armenia and Albania. Aliyev laughed, and Macron played along.

However, media outlets seized on the exchange, portraying it as European leaders mocking Trump. Rama responded forcefully in a post on X, rejecting that framing and publishing a lengthy clarification:

“It is truly remarkable how today’s media operates, and how the so-called ‘virality’ can so easily distort reality. A sentence spoken in good humor, in the spirit of friendship, suddenly turns into a worldwide headline of an entire summit among dozens of nations, while all the rest, the real substance, becomes irrelevant.

But yes, it was good fun today to be with my old friend Ilham Aliyev and, in the presence of our dear common friend Emmanuel Macron, to refer to a slip of President Trump that even Albania managed to make peace with Azerbaijan, while Emmanuel himself worked tirelessly, for a long time, to bring peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

A lighthearted remark, a friendly moment. Of course, no issue if it spreads, but to twist it into political venom is simply unfair. So let us set the record straight:

The truth is that President Trump has shown himself to be a leader who restored the word ‘peace’ to the vocabulary of the West after many years. And yes, in a remarkably short time, he has achieved peace where others tried but failed and he continues to pursue it tirelessly.

That exchange was nothing more than a moment of good humor among people who are, in fact, among President Trump’s greatest admirers,” Rama wrote.

Background: Relations between the United States and Albania have traditionally been very close, regardless of who sat in the White House, and Albanians rank among the most pro-American people in the world.  Currently, Albania benefits from a favorable 10% tariff regime and remains close to Washington. Rama himself has publicly praised Trump for his role in “waking Europe up to the fact that the world has changed,” underscoring his view that Albania’s ties with the United States transcend party politics in Washington.