Foreign Affairs

Trump Gives Up On Dream Of Buying Greenland

Official portrait of President Donald J. Trump, Friday, October 6, 2017. (Official White House photo by Shealah Craighead)

President Donald Trump dropped plans to negotiate the purchase of Greenland Tuesday after the prime minister of Denmark said she had no interest in selling the Danish territory to the U.S.

“Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time,” Trump tweeted.

“The Prime Minister was able to save a great deal of expense and effort for both the United States and Denmark by being so direct. I thank her for that and look forward to rescheduling sometime in the future!”

Denmark is a very special country with incredible people, but based on Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments, that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will be postponing our meeting scheduled in two weeks for another time….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2019

Trump said earlier this week he was interested in purchasing Greenland, and that he believed the Danish government would be interested given that the massive Arctic island costs more than $700 million a year to maintain. Trump said that though he was interested in negotiating a purchase, it was not high on his list of geopolitical priorities.

“It’s not number one on the burner, I can tell you that,” he told reporters.

Frederiksen said Monday that Greenland was not for sale, and said that discussion of a potential deal was “absurd.”