As Donald Trump continues to talk about taking control of Greenland, his oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., travelled to the autonomous Dutch territory on Tuesday — but Greenlandic and Danish officials are making it clear they want nothing to do with what the Trumps are proposing.
“Don Jr. and my Reps landing in Greenland,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, Tuesday. “The reception has been great. They, and the Free World, need safety, security, strength, and PEACE! This is a deal that must happen. MAGA. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!”
Donald Trump’s post to Truth Social, announcing his son’s arrival in Greenland.
Donald Trump / Truth Social
In a statement, Greenland’s government said the younger Trump’s visit was taking place “as a private individual” and not as an official visit, and Greenlandic representatives would not meet with him.
Further, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Tuesday that “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders.” The island is “not for sale,” she said, adding that “we need to stay calm and stick to our principles.”
Trump Jr., speaking on a podcast Monday, said he was making the trip without any political motivations, calling it a “personal day-trip.” The visit, nonetheless, had political overtones.
The president-elect has voiced a desire — also expressed during his first presidency — to acquire the territory in the Arctic, an area of strategic importance for the U.S, China, Russia and others.
And shortly after his son touched down in Greenland, Trump told a news conference that he wouldn’t rule out using military force or economic coercion to take control of Greenland, saying that “we need it for national security.”
The world’s largest island, Greenland sits between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans and 80 per cent of it is covered by an ice sheet. The autonomous territory has some 56,000 residents, most of them Indigenous Inuit people.
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Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede has called for independence from Denmark, saying in a New Year’s speech that it would be a way for Greenland to free itself from its colonial past. But Egede has also said he has no interest in Greenland becoming part of the U.S., insisting that the island is not for sale.
Independence has become a key issue ahead of an election for the Greenlandic parliament. A date hasn’t been set, but it must take place no later than April 6.
Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic member of the Danish parliament, told The Associated Press she has no interest in Greenland becoming part of the U.S. and said she hears the same sentiment from her constituents.
“Most people don’t want it,” she said. “I think some people find it quite disrespectful. And the way it has been done, and just the fact that you’re saying that you can buy another country.”
Trump sets his sights on Canada, too
Greenland isn’t the only locale outside the U.S. that Trump has spoken about acquiring and making part of the United States; he can’t stop talking about Canada becoming the 51st state.
In the same Tuesday press conference where he said he wouldn’t rule out military force or economic coercion on Greenland, he threatened similar action against Canada.
When asked by a reporter if he was considering the same to “annex and acquire Canada,” Trump responded, “No — economic force.”
“Canada and the United States, that would really be something,” he said. “You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded shortly after Trump’s threat, writing on social media there “isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that Canada would become part of the United States.”
“Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other’s biggest trading and security partner,” he added.
Trump repeatedly stated the U.S. “subsidizes” Canada to the tune of US$200 billion in trade and spends billions more on continental defence programs like NORAD than Canada, who he said “don’t essentially have a military.”
“We don’t need their cars, we don’t need their lumber,” he continued. “We don’t need anything they have. We don’t need their dairy products.
“We don’t need anything. So why are we losing $200 billion a year and more to protect Canada?”
— With files from Global News’ Sean Boynton and The Associated Press
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