One of the challenges with Donald Trump’s tendency to say outlandish, implausible things is that it can be difficult to tell when it’s a distraction and when it’s serious. Unfortunately for Denmark, it seems that Trump’s obsession with taking over Greenland appears to be the latter. According to a report from the Financial Times, a call between Trump and Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen went sideways, and now the Danes are freaking out.
The story goes that Trump and Frederiksen spoke on the phone last week for about 45 minutes in what was expected to be a bit of a feeling-out between the two parties, given Trump’s very public declaration that he would like to take Greenland off Denmark’s hands. There apparently weren’t a lot of pleasantries exchanged before Trump got aggro.
While Frederiksen reportedly expressed a willingness to cooperate with America, potentially allowing the U.S. to set up shop for military bases and dig up the island’s wealth of mineral reserves, that was not enough for Trump. He wants to buy Greenland outright and reportedly was unwilling to move off position. “He was very firm. It was a cold shower,” a European official told the Financial Times. “Before, it was hard to take it seriously. But I do think it is serious, and potentially very dangerous.”
So that’s not great. Officials described the Danish government as being in “crisis mode” following call and said they are “utterly freaked out by this.” Denmark, which is a NATO member alongside the U.S., is now staring down the barrel of potential tariffs that would seek to inflict harm on the country’s economy until they’re willing to let go of Greenland.
They’re right to be worried. Per the U.S. State Deparment, America is Denmark’s largest export market, and business between the two accounts for nearly 80,000 jobs for Danes. So there is a fair bit of opportunity for Trump to put the squeeze on, and he’s reportedly sending some of the most annoying people possible to negotiate. Ken Howery, a former PayPal mafia member alongside Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, is reportedly America’s point person, pending Senate approval. And there’s another Thiel ghoul, Dryden Brown, who appears ready to jump at the chance to turn Greenland into a techno-utopia, whether they want it or not.
For what it’s worth, they do not want it. Greenland isn’t exactly thrilled be to treated as a political football. While the island is home to just 57,000 people, it does have its own autonomous government, and its leader, Múte B. Egede, has stated they are not interested in becoming American property. Thus far, that has not really seemed to factor into the whole conversation. Instead, Trump and company are looking past the actual people and thinking entirely about exploiting the land.
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