A video clip from the 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World, directed by Werner Herzog, started spreading on social media earlier this month, showing a lone penguin that abandons other penguins to go die alone. The clip is disturbing when you know the reason this penguin is walking off into nothingness. But that didn’t stop the U.S. Department of Homeland Security from sharing the clip approvingly on X last week, perfectly illustrating just how bizarre President Donald Trump’s government has become on social media.
As best we can tell, DHS likes the penguin video because it’s related to snow and ice, something it connects with Greenland. President Trump has repeatedly said he wants to take over Greenland, which has alarmed European leaders enough that they’ve sent troops to the country to protect it from an American invasion.
It should be noted that Greenland doesn’t have any penguins, but the idiots in the Trump administration obviously don’t know that. The penguin video shared by DHS is edited to include footage of President Trump, Kristi Noem, Border Patrol, and ICE agents. Viewers also see unidentified agents storming homes and generally looking pretty fascist.
“But one of them caught our eye, the one in the center,” the narration explains.
“He would neither go towards the feeding grounds at the edge of the ice, nor return to the colony. Shortly afterwards, we saw him heading straight towards the mountains, some 70 kilometers away. Dr. Ainslie explained that even if he caught him and brought him back to the colony, he would immediately head right back for the mountains. But why?”
Americans have always known “why” pic.twitter.com/dcQNCtkNKk
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) January 24, 2026
The penguin portion is apparently being interpreted by DHS as something more akin to a bold explorer setting out to conquer new territory. However, it actually shows a penguin that has gone “crazy” according to Herzog’s own narration in the full film.
Werner Herzog posted an Instagram video a couple of days ago to talk about the clip going viral. He explained that he was inspired by the narration for the 1980s TV show Unsolved Mysteries. And Herzog talks about the most important part of the viral clip: learning about “insanity” in penguins that are “deranged.”
Trump has been more explicit about the connection to Greenland in other posts, like one from the White House X account on Jan. 23 that shows an AI-generated image of a penguin and Trump holding hands. The flag of Greenland appears in the background. The penguin is holding an American flag as it approaches, a symbol of conquering the country.
Embrace the penguin. pic.twitter.com/kKlzwd3Rx7
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 23, 2026
Even if Trump and his cronies don’t understand what’s actually going on in the viral video clip they shared, it feels appropriate for this crazy moment. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the infamous “Doomsday Clock” (a symbol of how close the group believes we are to the destruction of the world) to 85 seconds to midnight on Tuesday, the closest it’s ever been to total annihilation.
The clock is meant to draw attention to the existential threats we face, and this year, they pointed to the modernization of nuclear delivery systems in the United States, Russia, and China, as well as Trump’s plan for the Golden Dome missile system. The group also looked at climate change and the way that AI is accelerating misinformation, which could be catastrophic to humanity in its own right.
The Doomsday Clock is in many ways a silly relic of the Cold War era—a headline-grabbing way to talk about the threats faced by humanity during any given year. But it’s also not wrong. We are self-evidently living through a dangerous time under dangerous leaders.
“Our current trajectory is unsustainable. National leaders—particularly those in the United States, Russia, and China—must take the lead in finding a path away from the brink. Citizens must insist they do so,” the group wrote.
Don’t be the penguin. Running away from the colony to die alone is not a good idea, no matter what the Department of Homeland Security is telling you with their stupid little videos.
