The prime minister of Greenland responded to Donald Trump after the president-elect said owning the autonomous island “is an absolute necessity.”
As Madeline reported, Trump made the case for ownership of Greenland in his announcement of Ken Howery as his nominee to serve as U.S. ambassador to Denmark.
“Ken is a World renowned entrepreneur, investor, and public servant, who served our Nation brilliantly during my First Term as U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, where he led efforts to increase Defense, Security, and Economic Cooperation between our Countries,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“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. Ken will do a wonderful job in representing the interests of the United States. Thank you Ken, and congratulations!” the president-elect added.
But Prime Minister Múte Egede said that’s not happening.
“Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale,” Egede said in a statement, according to BBC. “We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”
This is not the first time Trump has floated the idea. In 2019, he called the purchase of Greenland “strategically” interesting.
“Denmark essentially owns it. We’re very good allies with Denmark. We protect Denmark like we protect large portions of the world,” Trump said. “Strategically, it’s interesting, and we’d be interested, but we’ll talk to them a little bit. It’s not number one on the burner.”
At the time, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the suggestion was “absurd.”
“Greenland is not Danish. Greenland is Greenlandic. I persistently hope that this is not something that is seriously meant,” Frederiksen told reporters.
But Trump took issue with the “nasty” response and postponed a state visit to Denmark because of it.
“I thought it was a very not nice way of saying something. They could have told me no,” Trump said.
“All they had to say was we’d rather not do that,” he added. “Don’t say, what an absurd idea that is.”
“She’s not talking to me, she’s talking to the United States of America,” he told reporters. “You don’t talk to the United States that way.”