Danish prime minister calls Trump’s interest in buying Greenland ‘absurd’

The Danish Prime Minister called Donald Trump’s interest in buying Greenland “absurd” the same day the President confirmed he had discussed the possibility of the US purchasing the country – albeit, Trump said, it wasn’t a high priority for America.

“Greenland is not for sale. Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Sunday told newspaper Sermitsiaq. “I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously.”

PITUFFIK, GREENLAND - MARCH 24: NASA's Operation IceBridge research aircraft taxis after landing at Thule Air Base on March 24, 2017 in Pituffik, Greenland. NASA's Operation IceBridge is flying research missions out of Thule Air Base and other Arctic locations during their annual Arctic spring campaign. Thule Air Base is the U.S. military's northernmost base located some 750 miles above the Arctic Circle. NASA's Operation IceBridge has been studying how polar ice has evolved over the past nine years and is currently flying a set of eight-hour research flights over ice sheets and the Arctic Ocean to monitor Arctic ice loss aboard a retrofitted 1966 Lockheed P-3 aircraft. According to NASA scientists and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), sea ice in the Arctic appears to have reached its lowest maximum wintertime extent ever recorded on March 7. Scientists have said the Arctic has been one of the regions hardest hit by climate change. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

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Trump has on multiple occasions brought up buying Greenland – an autonomous Danish territory – from the Danish government and the White House counsel’s office has looked into the possibility, two sources told CNN last week. On Sunday, Trump confirmed his interest in buying the country, telling reporters that Greenland is hurting Denmark.

“We are good allies with Denmark, we protect Denmark like we protect large portions of the world, and the concept came up,” the President said in New Jersey before heading to Washington. “Strategically it’s interesting, and we would be interested, but we will talk with them a little bit.”

“It’s not number one on the burner, I can tell you that,” Trump said.

Frederiksen on Sunday said conversations around the US buying Greenland were “an absurd discussion.”

ILULISSAT, GREENLAND - JULY 30: Inuit fishermen prepare a net as free-floating ice floats behind at the mouth of the Ilulissat Icefjord during unseasonably warm weather on July 30, 2019 near Ilulissat, Greenland. The Sahara heat wave that recently sent temperatures to record levels in parts of Europe is arriving in Greenland. Climate change is having a profound effect in Greenland, where over the last several decades summers have become longer and the rate that glaciers and the Greenland ice cap are retreating has accelerated. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

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“(Greenland Premier) Kim Kielsen has of course made it clear that Greenland is not for sale. That’s where the conversation ends,” she said.

Trump’s talk about buying Greenland, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, would not be the first American effort to purchase Greenland. Though President Harry Truman dodged questions about his pursuit of control in the region, the United States allegedly tried to buy Greenland in 1946. And in 1867, Secretary of State William Seward showed interest in purchasing the island.

“They tried to buy us in 1867, during (the) Second World War, and now they are trying again,” local Kulusuk resident Bent Abeelsen told CNN last week. “Not gonna happen.”

CNN’s Pamela Brown, Jim Acosta and Caroline Kelly contributed to this report.