US President Donald Trump expressed interest in buying Greenland for America, the BBC reported on Friday. The government of the world's largest island responded by saying that while they’re open for business, they are “not for sale.”
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story, claimed Trump showed “varying degrees of seriousness” when discussing the idea, indicating it might just be a joke that was misunderstood.
Saying that if Trump “truly” is considering it “he has gone mad” Foreign Affairs spokesperson for the Danish People’s Party Soren Espersen, adding that it’s ridiculous to think Denmark will think to sell “50,000 citizens to the US.”
Trump is supposed to visit Greenland in September.
In the US, Representative Mike Gallagher said that idea would be a “smart geopolitical move.”
The US does have a history of buying vast territories, such as the 1803 Louisiana Purchase from the French and the 1867 Alaska purchase from the Russians.
Trump did not invent this idea. President Andrew Johnson attempted it in the 1860’s and President Harry Truman offered the Danes $100 million for it in 1946.