COPENHAGEN-Danes voiced shock and disbelief on Wednesday at U.S. President Donald Trump’s cancellation of a visit to Denmark after his idea to buy Greenland was rebuffed, although Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she believed relations would not be affected.
Trump’s proposal at first elicited incredulity and humor from politicians in Denmark, a NATO ally of the United States, with former premier Lars Lokke Rasmussen saying: “It must be an April Fool’s Day joke.”
But the mood turned to bewilderment when Trump called off the Sept. 2-3 visit after Frederiksen called his idea of the United States purchasing Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory rich in natural resources, “absurd”.
Frederiksen, a center-left Social Democrat, said she learned of Trump’s decision “with regret and surprise”, given Denmark’s strong relations with Washington, but repeated her opposition to any Greenland transaction.
She stressed that Greenland’s premier Kim Kielsen had ruled out selling off the territory and “I obviously agree with him”.
But Frederiksen said the United States remained one of Denmark’s closest allies. “I don’t think the cancelling of this state visit should affect any decisions we make whether it is on commercial cooperation or foreign and security policies.”
Trump’s decision elicited condemnation, outrage and mockery alike among Danish opposition leaders and the public.
“So (Trump) has canceled his visit to Denmark because there was no interest in discussing selling Greenland. Is this some sort of joke? Deeply insulting to the people of Greenland and Denmark,” tweeted former premier Helle Thorning Schmidt.
“Total chaos with @realDonaldTrump and cancellation of state visit to Denmark. It has gone from a big opportunity for strengthened dialogue between allies to a diplomatic crisis,” said ex-foreign minister Kristian Jensen of the Liberal Party.
Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that President Trump had, on various occasions, floated the idea of the U.S. purchasing Greenland. Trump later confirmed his interest, saying “essentially, it’s a large real estate deal” and jokingly tweeting a doctored image of a Trump-branded building towering over the barren Greenland landscape.
Greenland is a massive yet sparsely populated island off the northeast coast of Canada that’s largely covered in ice. The island is a self-governing territory of Denmark.
In response to reports of American interest, Greenland’s Foreign Ministry said it was “open for business, not for sale.” Denmark’s prime minister called the idea “absurd.”
Trump is not the first U.S. president to try to buy Greenland. The Truman administration offered the Danes $100 million in gold and potentially part of Alaska for the island in 1946. Denmark declined, but has allowed the U.S. to maintain an Air Force base there for the past 70 years. The two countries completed a deal in 1917 for America to acquire what are now the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Many wrote off the idea as nothing more than offhand comments made by a president prone to speaking off the cuff. Others have argued that the notion was functionally impossible because Denmark may not be in a position to sell Greenland, even if it wanted to.
Purchasing Greenland might not be as unreasonable as it sounds, some have countered, and such a transaction would not be unprecedented. America has a long history of buying huge swaths of land, including Alaska and most of the central U.S. Supporters of the idea say Greenland has strong strategic military value. The island also has major oil and mineral resources that are expected to become accessible as its ice sheets melt due to climate change. Denmark may also want to redirect the $740 million it spends annually to support the island.
