US President-elect Donald Trump is renewing unsuccessful calls he made during his first term for the United States to buy Greenland from Denmark.
First there was Canada, then the Panama Canal. Now, Donald Trump wants Greenland again.
The president-elect is renewing unsuccessful calls he made during his first term for the United States to buy Greenland from Denmark, adding to the list of allied countries with which he is provoking conflict even before taking office on January 20.
In a Sunday announcement naming his ambassador to Denmark, Trump wrote: “For reasons of National Security and Freedom around the World, the United States considers ownership and control of Greenland to be an absolute necessity.”
Trump's return to Greenland comes after the president-elect suggested over the weekend that the United States could retake control of the Panama Canal if something is not done to alleviate the rising shipping costs required to use the waterway it connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
He has also suggested that Canada become the 51st state of the United States and referred to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the “governor” of the “Great State of Canada.”
Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, said Trump's provocation of friendly countries is reminiscent of an aggressive style he used during his days as a businessman.
“You ask for something illogical and you're more likely to get something less illogical,” said Farnsworth, who is also the author of the book “Presidential Communication and Character.”
Greenland, the largest island in the world, lies between the Atlantic and the Arctic. It is 80% covered by a sheet of ice and is home to a large US military base.
It gained autonomy from Denmark in 1979 and its head of government, Múte Bourup Egede, suggested that Trump's latest calls for American control would be as insignificant as those made in his first term.
“Greenland is ours. “We are not for sale and we will never be for sale,” he said in a statement. “We must not lose our years-long fight for freedom.”
Trump canceled a 2019 visit to Denmark after Copenhagen rejected his offer to buy Greenland.