Donald Trump Cancels Meeting With Danish Prime Minister Over Greenland
President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday that he’s canceling a meeting with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen after finding out she thinks his proposal to buy Greenland is “absurd.”
Trump was previously scheduled to visit Denmark, which maintains Greenland as an autonomous territory, in two weeks.
But since Frederiksen has “no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland,” he wrote, he’s postponing his meeting with her.
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 didn’t initially express any ill will toward Frederiksen and thanked her for “being so direct.”
....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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2019
But during a press gaggle before boarding Marine One on Wednesday, Trump continued to lambasteFrederiksen.
“Denmark, I looked forward to going but I thought that the prime minister’s statement that it was ‘absurd’ ... was nasty,” he said. “All she had to say was no.”
TRUMP: "I look forward to going to going [to Denmark], but I thought the prime minister's statement that [buying Greenland] was an 'absurd idea' was nasty. I thought it was an inappropriate statement ... we can't treat the USA the way they treated us under President Obama." pic.twitter.com/pdgMPxFaVM
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 21, 2019
Frederiksen said at a news conference Wednesday morning that she was “disappointed and surprised” by Trump’s decision to cancel, adding that “the invitation for a stronger strategic cooperation with the Americans in the Arctic is still open,” according to The Associated Press.
“The United States is one of our closest allies,” she said.
Trump confirmed Sunday that he was seriously weighing whether the U.S. could buy Greenland, an ice-covered island situated between the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that he’d been discussing the idea with White House counsel.
The news was baffling to many U.S. and world leaders, and especially to those in Denmark.
“Greenland is not for sale,” Frederiksen told the Danish newspaper Sermitsiaq on Sunday. “Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland. I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously.”
Andy Campbell and Ja’han Jones contributed to this report.
This article has been updated with comments from Frederiksen and additional comments from Trump.
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
