Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen would be justified to be a tad confused. An official visit was planned to Denmark with President Donald Trump who made headlines by suddenly saying that he might buy Greenland. The response from Denmark was as predictable as if Frederiksen suddenly announced an interest in buying Rhode Island. She declined the offer. The response from Trump was to cancel the visit since they will not sell him part of their country. Trump later added insult to injury by calling Frederiksen “nasty” and “not very nice” in swatting back a sudden public offer to buy a huge amount of territory from Denmark.
I have no problem with a president exploring a purchase of an area like Greenland (which has been tried before), but it is done not on twitter or a presser. It is done through back channels to explore any interest. There is no interest. The public declaration from Trump however compelled the Prime Minister to state that the proposal was viewed as “absurd.”
Trump responded by saying that the refusing to sell off part of their lands made a meeting unnecessary despite Denmark being a long-standing ally. Trump simply stated “based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greeland, I will be postponing our meeting schedule in two weeks for another time …”
Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time….
Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump
….The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct. I thank her for that and look forward to rescheduling sometime in the future!84.2K7:51 PM – Aug 20, 2019Twitter Ads info and privacy30.6K people are talking about this
This is all embarrassing for the United States. If we were setting up the meeting solely to discuss the purpose of a large amount of Denmark’s territory, it should have been vetted before in private. We cannot run a major nation through Twitter and oft-hand comments.
This is a NATO ally which was preparing for an official visit of the President of the United States “to celebrate Denmark’s close relationship to the US”. . First it must deal with a sudden offer to buy part of their territory and then a brush off because they refused to do so. This type of conduct is destroying our standing with the world.
Former foreign minister Kristian Jensen put it simply in describing the “total chaos” caused by Trump’s statements: “It has gone from a great opportunity for enhanced dialogue between allies to a diplomatic crisis.”