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Trump Wants to Buy Greenland from Denmark

The headline sounds like it’s from “The Onion” but Trump seems serious.

The Walls Street Journal reports President Trump Eyes a New Real-Estate Purchase: Greenland.

In meetings, at dinners and in passing conversations, Mr. Trump has asked advisers whether the U.S. can acquire Greenland, listened with interest when they discuss its abundant resources and geopolitical importance and, according to two of the people, has asked his White House counsel to look into the idea.

Some of his advisers have supported the concept, saying it was a good economic play, two of the people said, while others dismissed it as a fleeting fascination that will never come to fruition. It is also unclear how the U.S. would go about acquiring Greenland even if the effort were serious.

With a population of about 56,000, Greenland is a self-ruling part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and while its government decides on most domestic matters, foreign and security policy is handled by Copenhagen. Mr. Trump is scheduled to make his first visit to Denmark early next month, although the visit is unrelated, these people said.

The White House and State Department didn’t respond to a request for comment. Officials with Denmark’s Royal House and the Danish embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did officials with Greenland’s representative office in Washington and Greenland’s prime minister’s office.

Though it has vast natural resources across its 811,000 square miles, Greenland relies on $591 million of subsidies from Denmark annually, which make up about 60% of its annual budget, according to U.S. and Danish government statistics.

Greenland the 51st State

Hell, why buy it? Just invade the country. There will be no resistance.

Then declare it the 51st state.

And if anyone objects, offer Chicago as payment. If that’s not enough, give Denmark all of Illinois.

Voilla, back to 50 states.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock

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34 Comments
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Christian dk
Christian dk
6 years ago

What would Trump pay with…?
Fake fiat paper money, like they paid the “indians” with glass beeds and Wiskey ??
Denmark will only accept 1 tons of pure gold per national person living in Greenland,
and that means physical 1 kg gold bars delivered and AUDITED by the chinese.
So, 56.000 tons of pure gold…
The FED is so desperate now, to expand the money supply that anything is possible….
Only fools would sell gold for paper dollars….
CHALLENGE
Here in Denmark, we can get a mortage at -,65 % on a 10 year no principle payment.
?? WHAT will GOLD and SILVER be worth in 10 years time…??
talk about making money from nothing…..z.z.z.

William Janes
William Janes
6 years ago

Hah. Trump having fun on a slow news day. Have to admire his creativity, no one has thought about buying or selling countries since the colonial era of European empires. The Chicago School of Economics should study the idea as the final stage of capitalism. What would Puerto Rico bring if venture capitalist incorporated it and brought it to financial markets as an emerging market country?

JJ Johnson
JJ Johnson
6 years ago

Had we not let China get lithium mining rights in Afghanistan for our pharmaceutical companies getting cheap poppy for opioid production, could of traded lithium to Denmark for Greenland. 🙂

DennisAOK
DennisAOK
6 years ago

The US actually tried to buy Greenland after the Second World War, when Denmark was in a weak economic position and the US was in a strong one, but the Danes said no.

Carl_R
Carl_R
6 years ago

No reason to give them all of Illinois. Just let them take Chicago and the boonies. But, in a catch, make them restore the flow of the Chicago river to the original direction, or charge them a sewage fee for anything they send the other way.

Bam_Man
Bam_Man
6 years ago

Or if the Danish are shrewd negotiators, a box full of beads and trinkets.

Bam_Man
Bam_Man
6 years ago

And pay for it with “Trump Bux”.

abend237-04
abend237-04
6 years ago

There’s nothing wrong with Illinois that couldn’t be fixed by building a wall around Chicago.

Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett
6 years ago

If DJT insists on going down this road, can’t he buy somewhere warm with good surfing?

Costa Rico?

MrGrumpy
MrGrumpy
6 years ago
Reply to  Tony Bennett

Just wait a few decades. With global warming Greenland’s beaches will be the envy of the world.

frozeninthenorth
frozeninthenorth
6 years ago

Hahahaha….wait this is a thing! Man you ‘mericans are crazy!

gatorgr8
gatorgr8
6 years ago

Not too far fetched at all, if my memory serves me correctly, I believe the US bought the USVI’s from Denmark for 24millon in GOLD. Would be a good buy (my opinion). Offer free immigration to the territory, if you agree to live there for three years min, you are automatically granted citizenship!

KidHorn
KidHorn
6 years ago

We purchased Alaska and 1/3rd of the middle of the US. Doesn’t seem too far fetched.

I would require payment in gold.

Matt3
Matt3
6 years ago

I like the idea of a swap of Greenland for Illinois. I’m originally from Illinois. Glad I escaped. Chicago could be the Amsterdam of North America.
This is the type of out of the box thinking we need!

Blurtman
Blurtman
6 years ago

So that’s his plan. With global warming, it’s the new Cancun.

Cupid_123
Cupid_123
6 years ago

Mish is secretly in love with Trump.

Why doesn’t Mish just admit it?

leicestersq
leicestersq
6 years ago

Seems to me Trump should be given credit here for proposing a consensual change of sovereignty. If everyone or a vast majority agree, and no one gets hurt, then that is so much better than war is it not?

Je'Ri
Je'Ri
6 years ago

No way it will be 51st. First of all, I have it from good authority (Barack Obama) that there are already 57 states. Then there is that issue about Puerto Rican statehood, which is practically a certainty. And if we are going to invade Greenland, the easiest routes to get there are through resource-rich Canada, and those provinces make better candidates for statehood than Greenland. Just sayin’.

Tengen
Tengen
6 years ago

Since this is Denmark we’re talking about, can we take out one of those 10 year negative rate mortgages? Between the Fed creating money out of nothing and others lending to us at negative interest, we can’t lose!

Maybe instead of buying we could trade territories with Denmark. Think they’d be interested in Puerto Rico? We could throw in Epstein’s Little St James to sweeten the deal!

Great Danes
Great Danes
6 years ago
Reply to  Tengen

How about we give you Greenland. We get Calif Org and Was. The only fair trade. You pay the balance in Gold. US$ is worth noting here.

Herkie
Herkie
6 years ago
Reply to  Great Danes

Considering that California, Oregon, and Washington, together contribute $3.1 trillion (fifth largest in the world surpassing the UK in 2017) to the US economy and more than any ten red states combined, I would say that it is up to those states to decide their own future and not some tiny socialist EU backwater. Not much offense intended, but I am an EU citizen and have recently lived there, I have no intention of living under the rule of the ECB head ever again.

But let me counter offer, you get Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Missouri, no bullion, and all the corn dogs you can eat. Plus the entire Southern Baptist Convention, let’s see you try to get those bastards to be civilized.

Donaldo
Donaldo
6 years ago
Reply to  Tengen

I think I am up for offering a higher price than Trump if I can get a 100 year negative rate mortgage from a Danish bank then it seems the sky is the limit.

Mish
Mish
6 years ago

anyway – that was all a joke

Casual_Observer
Casual_Observer
6 years ago

I doubt this will take 1000 years. I would give it maybe 50. Denmark should sell now to anyone who wants to buy. Greenland is going be a much smaller island by the end of the century.

FelixMish
FelixMish
6 years ago

Just the opposite. It doesn’t get smaller. Greenland loses a lot of fresh ground water but gains a lot of usable area with plenty of water still there. Score! … Well. Slooooow score, anyway.

Webej
Webej
6 years ago
Reply to  FelixMish

No, if the ice is gone Greenland will be smaller for two reasons:

  1. Sea Level rise will nibble away at the coastlines
  2. Large parts of the glaciers and ice fields rest on subterranean bedrock, meaning they will be open ocean. This is one of the recent “disappointments” about the longevity of arctic ice — large parts of the bedrock of Greenland and Antarctica are under sea level (as deep as 1.7km if I remember correctly), which means melting from underneath by warm ocean water is much more dangerous than changing weather and temperatures.
  3. Mitigating some of the ice and land loss, earth’s crust will rebound somewhat, raising the land surface.
KidHorn
KidHorn
6 years ago

Total nonsense. There’s no way outside of a meteor strike on the ice sheet or nuclear bombs dropped on it that it will melt within 1,000 years. The ice sheet is 2 miles thick at points and since the coast is surrounded by mountains, the amount if ice that can flow to sea is greatly limited.

stillCJ
stillCJ
6 years ago

I thought Al Gore predicted all the Greenland ice would be melted by now.

stillCJ
stillCJ
6 years ago

No way Denmark would want anything to do with Chicago, or Illinois.

Mish
Mish
6 years ago
Reply to  stillCJ

If we invade Denmark we can force them to take it in war reparations.

Great Danes
Great Danes
6 years ago
Reply to  Mish

Any US military personnel will freeze their ass off before they get off the boat. Just like the exercise in Norway last winter. Americans came totally unprepared. They were sent shopping for cloth when they got there. Lolo. Embarrassing.

Great Danes
Great Danes
6 years ago
Reply to  Mish

Ask 1000 Americans if they can even find Greenland on the world map.
. like the Iraqi war. We want to invade Iraq but we can’t find it.

FelixMish
FelixMish
6 years ago
Reply to  Great Danes

Ha. Ha. Yep. Famously, Vietnam, too.

But, for fun, ask yourself: Is Greenland a big island, up north-ish, roughly midway between Canada and Europe?

Nope. Greenland is a mini-Antarctica, the big-kahuna of a bunch of islands off the north coast of Canada.

Great Danes
Great Danes
6 years ago
Reply to  stillCJ

No way Danmark want anything to do with the US period. His visit to Danmark is just aTuborg visit. The Danish PM will show him alternative energy . Windmills. Lolo.
Trump is not interested in Coal. He want a military base but Russia would be around the island before he get there. It would be Cuba all over again.

All 6 million Danes are laughing their Aquavit off.

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