Greenland rejects Trump and says its country is “not for sale” – National

First it was Canada, then the Panama Canal. now, Donald Trump Again he wants Greenland.

The president-elect renews the failed calls he made during his first term for the United States to buy Greenland From Denmark, which adds to the list of allied countries with which he is waging battles even before he takes office on January 20.

In Sunday’s announcement of his ambassador to Denmark, Trump wrote that “for the purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world, the United States of America feels that ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”

Trump’s plans again for Greenland come after the president-elect suggested over the weekend that the United States could regain control of the Panama Canal if nothing is done to mitigate the rising shipping costs required to use the waterway linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

He has also been proposing that Canada become the 51st state in the United States and has referred to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the “governor” of the “Great State of Canada.”

Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, said Trump’s changes in friendly countries bring to mind the aggressive style he used during his business days.

“If you ask for something unreasonable, you are likely to get something less unreasonable,” said Farnsworth, author of Presidential and Personal Communications.

Greenland, the largest island in the world, lies between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans. It is covered by 80% ice, and is home to a large US military base. It gained home rule from Denmark in 1979, and its prime minister, Moti Borup Egede, has suggested that Trump’s recent calls for US control would be as meaningless as those made in his first term.

“Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale,” he said in a statement. “We must not lose our years-long struggle for freedom.”

Trump canceled a visit to Denmark in 2019 after Copenhagen rejected his offer to buy Greenland, but that ultimately came to nothing.

He also suggested on Sunday that the United States was being “scammed” in the Panama Canal.

“If the ethical and legal principles of this generous gesture of giving are not followed, we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America, in its entirety, quickly and without question,” he said.

Panama President José Raul Molino responded in a video, saying: “Every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue to do so,” but Trump responded on his social media site, saying: “We’ll see about that!”

The president-elect also posted a photo of an American flag planted in the Canal Zone under the phrase, “Welcome to the USA Canal!”

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The United States built the canal in the early 1900s, but relinquished control of it to Panama on December 31, 1999, under a treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977.

The canal relies on reservoirs that were exposed to drought waves in 2023, which forced it to significantly reduce the number of daily periods for ships to transit. As the number of ships has declined, officials have also increased fees charged to shippers to reserve slots to use the canal.

The Greenland and Panama clashes follow Trump’s recent posting that “Canadians want Canada to become the 51st state” and displaying a photo of himself pinned to the top of a mountain surveying the surrounding land next to a Canadian flag.

Trudeau noted that Trump had been joking about annexing his country, but the two recently met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida to discuss Trump’s threats to impose a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods.

“Canada will not become part of the United States, but Trump’s comments are more about leveraging what he says to extract concessions from Canada by throwing Canada off balance, especially given the current parlous political environment in Canada,” Farnsworth said. “Maybe we will demand a win on trade concessions, tighter borders or other things.”

He said the situation was similar with Greenland.

“What Trump wants is to win,” Farnsworth said. “Even if the American flag does not fly over Greenland, the Europeans may be more willing to say yes to something else because of the pressures.”

— Associated Press writer Gary Fields in Washington contributed to this report.

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