The leader of Greenland has flat-out rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s renewed interest in purchasing the massive Arctic island from Denmark, insisting that the territory is not on the market.
“Greenland is ours,” the territory’s prime minister Múte Egede said in a statement on Monday. “We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”
Egede’s comment comes after the incoming president announced that he wanted to revisit the idea of buying the semi-autonomous land from Denmark. During his first term in the White House, Trump expressed a desire to make a “large real-estate deal” because “strategically” it would be “very nice.”
Naming Paypal co-founder and former envoy to Sweden Ken Howery as his ambassador to Copenhagen, Trump declared in a Truth Social post on Sunday that the United States would once again look at snapping up Greenland from Denmark.
“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 wrote.
In 2019, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen swiftly rejected Trump’s initial proposal to buy Greenland, calling it “absurd.” The then president reacted by calling her “nasty” and canceling a state visit to the Danish capital. It was later reported that cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder had planted the notion in Trump’s head; Trump then floated the idea of swapping Puerto Rico for Greenland.
Less than a month before Trump takes office for a second time, the president-elect has made waves and sparked international backlash with his threats to either retake former U.S. territories or annex sovereign countries.
Over the weekend, he went on a social media tirade in which he threatened to reclaim the Panama Canal following his complaints about the “ridiculous” fees being charged to shipping companies by the Panamanian government for the right to use the waterway. The canal, built by the United States in the early 20th century, was ceded to Panama in 1999 under the terms of a treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1978.
“If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question,” Trump grumbled. “To the Officials of Panama, please be guided accordingly!”
Responding to Trump’s threats, which the incoming president doubled down on during a speech on Sunday at a right-wing gathering, Panama’s conservative president José Raúl Mulino posted a video saying that “every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue to belong” to his country.
“We’ll see about that!” Trump replied on Truth Social, adding another post with an AI image of a United States flag over the canal zone and a caption reading “Welcome to the United States Canal!”
Additionally, the president-elect has spent the past few weeks trolling Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau with the idea of making Canada an American state.
“No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year? Makes no sense! Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State,” Trump declared last week in a 3 a.m. post on his social media site. “They would save massively on taxes and military protection. I think it is a great idea. 51st State!!!”
