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Trump slams Danish PM’s ‘nasty’ rejection of Greenland deal

US Donald Trump snaps back at the Danish prime minister’s “nasty” dismissal of his attempts to purchase Greenland, heightening a row which has already prompted the US president to scrap a state visit.

Hours after announcing he would not visit Copenhagen next month as planned, Trump accuses Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of insulting the United States as a whole by rejecting talk of buying Greenland as “absurd.”

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

With Frederiksen voicing her annoyance at Trump’s cancellation, the war of words marks another spat between the US and one of its traditional allies since Trump came to power two years ago on an avowedly “America First” foreign policy platform.

Trump — who made his name as a New York property mogul — has characterized his idea of buying Greenland as essentially “a large real estate” deal, arguing it is a burden on Denmark as the autonomous territory’s economy depends heavily on subsidies from Copenhagen.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump says he isn’t the first US president to have raised the idea of buying the vast Arctic island which has housed an American air base since even before it became formally a part of Denmark.

“Greenland was just an idea, just a thought. But I think when they say it was ‘absurd’ — and it was said in a very nasty, very sarcastic way — I said, ‘We’ll make it some other time,'” Trump says.

A picture taken on July 11, 2015, shows houses in Upernavik, a small village in western Greenland. (Linda Kastrup / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)

“We’ll go to Denmark. I love Denmark. I’ve been to Denmark. And, frankly, we’ll do it another time.”

The idea of the US buying Greenland was initially dismissed as a joke by some, but its strategic location has grown at a time when both Russia and China are flexing their muscles.

— AFP

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