This time it was Danish PM Mette Frederiksen on the receiving end, and the circumstances are particularly bizarre.
Trump’s problem with Frederiksen is that he wanted to purchase the partially Danish controlled Greenland, but Frederiksen has called the idea “absurd”, noting that “thankfully, the time when you buy and sell other countries and population is over”
She also said that Greenland is not Danish and belongs to Greenland (for the record, Greenland premier Kim Kielsen has also declared it will not be sold).
So Trump has gone and cancelled his upcoming visit to Denmark — making the announcement via Twitter and declaring he would not be going on account of Frederiksen stating she has no interest, “in discussing the purchase of Greenland.”
Trump later told reporters: “Denmark, I looked forward to going but I thought that the Prime Minister’s statement that it was ‘absurd’ … was nasty,” he said.
Meanwhile, former Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt (yes, Denmark has had not one but TWO female PMs in ten years) has asked what we’re all thinking: “Is this some sort of joke?”
Trump has a long record of calling women “nasty”, including referring to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a “nasty, vindictive, horrible person”. More recently he said of the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, “I didn’t know she was nasty.”
Of course Hillary Clinton has also been described as “nasty”, along with Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris.
The Wall Street Journal first reported that Trump had taken an interested in purchasing Greenland last week.
On learning about the idea, Frederiksen told a local newspaper: “Greenland is not for sale. Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland… I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously.”
You can see why neither Frederiksen or Kielsen were particularly thrilled about discussing the purchase of Greenland, given Trump’s tweet on the matter below. He’s compared the idea to “a large real estate deal”, noting that it would be of strategic value to the US.
“It’s just something we’ve talked about. Denmark essentially owns it. We’re very good allies with Denmark. We’ve protected Denmark like we protect large portions of the world, so the concept came up.”
“Strategically, it’s interesting. And, we’d be interested. We’ll talk to them a little bit.
But he also added: “It’s not No. 1 on the burner, I can tell you that.”
And if you too think the whole idea was absurd, well check out this CNN piece attempting to make some sense of it all — if only to demonstrate how this latest episode in the Trump presidency really explains a lot about much of the whole thing.
I promise not to do this to Greenland! pic.twitter.com/03DdyVU6HA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2019
Photo above: Mette Frederiksen hilser landsmøtet, Sandra Skillingsås, Arbeiderpartiet