Incoming US President Donald Trump stepped up his rhetoric about buying Greenland as lawmakers introduced a bill called the Make Greenland Great Again Act in the House of Representatives.
The bill, one of Trump’s numerous initiatives, would allow him to launch talks with Denmark to acquire the territory starting from 20 January, the day of his inauguration. Despite the lack of support from the Democratic leadership in Congress, ordinary lawmakers expressed interest in buying the island.
Meanwhile, Danish and Greenlandic officials repeatedly said they would not sell the autonomous region to the United States. Premier of Greenland Múte B. Egede said at a news conference in Copenhagen on Friday:
We do not want to be Danes, we do not want to be Americans – of course, we want to be Greenlander.
However, as early as Monday, Egede told reporters in Greenland’s capital Nuuk that he was looking forward to establishing closer ties with the United States. Danish officials also contacted Trump’s team to signal their openness to expanding the US military presence on the island.
Greenland won the right to declare independence from Denmark in 2009. In 2019, Trump first mentioned a possible purchase of Greenland during his first term as president.
Recently, he reiterated that he would buy territory belonging to Denmark, a member of the EU and NATO. Then his son Donald Trump Jr. paid a surprise visit to Nuuk, which only fuelled further speculation about US expansion.
