Trump’s change of plans angers, bewilders Danes
ODENSE, Denmark — The astonishment in Denmark over President Donald Trump’s apparent desire to buy Greenland turned to bewilderment and anger on Wednesday after the American leader abruptly scrapped a state visit because the Danes have no desire to sell.
The cancellation was a rare snub of Denmark’s head of state, Queen Margrethe II, who had extended the invitation to the president and would have hosted him and first lady Melania Trump.
Later in the day, Trump further strained ties, calling the Danish prime minister’s rejection of the idea “nasty.”
News that Trump had called off his visit “came as a surprise,” the Royal House’s communications director told the state broadcaster, adding, “That’s all we have to say about that.”
Others, however, more to say.
“Is this some sort of joke?” Helle ThorningSchmidt, a former prime minister, wrote on Twitter. “Deeply insulting to the people of Greenland and Denmark.”
It was not a joke. A day earlier, Trump said on Twitter that Denmark was “a very special country with incredible people” but added that he was abandoning plans to visit because of the country’s refusal to sell had Greenland, a semiautonomous part of the kingdom of Denmark.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had said she had no interest in discussing the sale of Greenland. “Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland,” Frederiksen told a Danish newspaper this week. “I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously.”
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, Trump said the prime minister had been “nasty” when she described the suggestion as “an absurd discussion.”
“All they had to do is say, ‘No, we’d rather not do that’ or ‘We’d rather not talk about it,’ ” he said. “Don’t say, ‘What an absurd idea that is.’”
He added, “You don’t talk to the United States that way.”
Frederiksen, asked about his remarks on Danish television, said, “I’m not going to enter a war of words with anybody, nor with the American president.”
She said she found the Danish response to the president’s visit and its cancellation “good and wise.”
On Sunday, Trump said the idea of buying Greenland has been discussed in his administration because of the strategic benefits and in part because of its natural resources.