Greenland on Monday stressed that it was not for sale, after Donald Trump again suggested he wanted the United States to take control of the strategic island that holds major mineral and oil reserves.
Trump offered to buy the vast Danish territory during his first term in office -- receiving an abrupt refusal -- and he revived his push over the weekend when naming his ambassador to Copenhagen for his incoming administration.
Greenland's Prime Minister Mute Egede quickly sought to quash any chance of a deal. "Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom," Mute Egede said in a statement.
Greenland, the world's largest island, is an autonomous Danish territory with its own parliament, about 55,000 inhabitants, and a small pro-independence movement. It relies on Denmark to fund more than half of its public budget.
Trump on Sunday posted that "for purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity."
He’s a lifelong real estate developer. The man is stupid enough to look at a Mercator projection map and say look at this massive island that’s undeveloped!
It’s reported he offered to trade Puerto Rico for it.
Greenland is in a strategic part of the Arctic Circle, which is gaining more attention as it is seeing more shipping activity and people are finding more natural resources. The idea would be to turn it into a second Alaska in terms of greater military presence.
Trump and his cronies? Yes. Never conflate what they say with what they’re actually doing. What they say is what they think will manipulate people into acting the way they want.