Trump Cites ‘Nasty’ Remark by Danish Leader After Canceling Trip
Trump Cites ‘Nasty’ Remark by Danish Leader After Canceling Trip
(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump said he canceled his trip to Denmark after a “nasty” comment by the country’s prime minister about the U.S. president’s interest in buying Greenland.
The president told reporters on Wednesday that it was “inappropriate” for Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to remark that Trump’s desire to buy Greenland was absurd.
“When they say it was absurd -- and it was said in a very nasty, very sarcastic way -- I said, ‘We’ll make it some other time,’” Trump told reporters.
He added: “She’s talking to the United States of America. You don’t talk to the United States that way, at least under me.”
“All she had to do was say, ‘No we wouldn’t be interested,’” Trump said.
On Wednesday evening, the State Department said that Secretary of State Michael Pompeo had spoken with Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod “regarding the postponement of President Trump’s travel to Denmark.”
The department said in a statement that Pompeo “expressed appreciation for Denmark’s cooperation as one of the United States’ allies and Denmark’s contributions to address shared global security priorities.”
Trump called off the trip after his idea to purchase Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, was met first with bemusement, then flat refusal. Anger followed, and even Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II was drawn into the fray.
The president was scheduled to make his first visit to Denmark, a founding member of NATO and a U.S. ally in the Iraq war, on Sept. 2-3. A series of reports last week indicated he wanted to purchase Greenland, the world’s biggest island and site of a strategic American base. The territory is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, though it has extensive home rule.
A leading member of the Danish government bloc on Wednesday called Trump’s behavior “hopeless,” while a former prime minister said the decision was “deeply insulting” to Danes. The queen weighed in, noting through a spokeswoman that the U.S. president’s decision to snub her invitation in a tweet came as a surprise.
Frederiksen said later that an invitation to Trump for a state visit still stands. The cancellation was a matter for regret, she told reporters in Copenhagen. “I was looking forward to his visit.”
Their discussions were to have focused on the strategic importance of Greenland. It’s where the U.S. has its northernmost base, Thule, and the island’s location close to the natural resources in the Arctic has made it attractive to both Russia and China. Frederiksen’s predecessor, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, said the debacle will require “enormous” work to repair trans-Atlantic relations.
The cancellation of the trip is a “diplomatic crisis,” said Kristian Jensen, a member of the opposition and a former finance minister. He hinted at the damage done to the post-World War II relationship with Denmark, which was among a handful of countries to follow the U.S. into the Iraq war.
Frederiksen had called the idea of buying Greenland absurd and said she hoped it was a joke. She made clear the island wasn’t for sale and that Denmark doesn’t have the authority to sell it in any case.
Trump continued to air his grievances with Denmark on Wednesday with a tweet saying the country isn’t contributing enough to NATO. “Denmark is only at 1.35% of GDP for NATO spending,” he wrote. “They are a wealthy country and should be at 2%.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Jordan Fabian in Washington at jfabian6@bloomberg.net;Morten Buttler in Copenhagen at mbuttler@bloomberg.net;Nick Rigillo in Copenhagen at nrigillo@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net, Justin Blum, Joshua Gallu
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