Valuable minerals! Greenland buy isn’t a joke, Trump says he’ll ‘talk to Denmark about it’
Reports that Donald Trump sees Greenland as a good real estate prospect were no joke, with the White House economic adviser, and then Trump himself confirming that he’s really mulling the purchase of world’s largest island.
“It's an interesting story,” Larry Kudlow told Fox News Sunday. “It’s developing. We’re looking at it. We don’t know.”
I don't want to predict an outcome. I just know the president, who knows a thing or two about buying real estate, wants to take a look at a potential Greenland purchase.
He reminded host Dana Perino that “years ago” another US President, Harry Truman, also considered buying the 2,166,086-sq-km island, 80 percent of which is covered with ice.
According to Kudlow’s logic, Denmark, which incorporates Greenland as a self-governed territory, should sell it to America because “Denmark is an ally.”
“Greenland is a strategic place… they’ve got a lot of valuable minerals,” he explained.
‘We’ll talk to Denmark – it’s costing them a lot!’
Trump did eventually comment on the possible new candidate for “deal of the century” title on Sunday. Speaking to media, he said buying Greenland was “not No.1 on the burner” for his administration, but it was “something we talked about.”
However, he acknowledged that the purchase was “strategically interesting” and promised that Washington will even talk to Denmark “a little bit” on such a possibility.
Trump saw no problem is buying a whole country, saying that it was just “a large real estate deal.” Denmark should be interested in selling Greenland because pumping $700 million annually into the island annually is hurting them “really badly.”
Earlier this week, sources told the Wall Street Journal that Trump “listened with interest” as his advisers discussed Greenland’s strategic location and vast natural resources, directing them to study the possibility of acquiring the island for the US.
According to Danish surveys, the ownership of the island would allow the title holder to stake a claim to around 900,000 sq km of the continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean.
There’s just one thing the advisers probably forgot to tell Trump: Greenland is an autonomous country of over 56,000 people with its own local government, and while it relies on Denmark for two thirds of its budget, Copenhagen couldn’t sell it even if it wanted to.
So far, no willingness for the latter has been expressed – quite the contrary.
“It’s important for us to point out that selling Greenland is not an option. Nobody can sell a country like that. Denmark doesn’t own Greenland and you can’t sell something you don’t own,” Aki-Matilda Hoegh-Dam, a Danish MP elected in Greenland has said.
Greenland’s Foreign Minister earlier responded to the report by saying that the island was “open for business, but we’re not for sale,” while various Danish politicians blasted Trump’s ambitions as “completely ridiculous” and an “April Fool’s joke.”
- Source : RT
