What made Trump think that Denmark had any possible iota of a desire to sell Greenland to the US?
Was this a foreign policy fiasco? Cancelling a trip to Denmark because the Danes don’t want to sell Denmark?
What sort of foreign policy amateurs are running the show?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
62 Answers
He has money and wants to spend it on a piece of property, just like The Mar-a-Lago Club.
Then sell memberships have a $250,000 initiation fee and dues each year of $250,000 to reduce the taxes of the upper 1 percent.
Trump seems to go out of his way to annoy allies while remaining chummy with autocrats. Hopefully our democracy will remain intact when he leaves office.
This is just one more episode highlighting the fool’s mercurial instability in the ongoing honing of himself as America’s delusional masterpiece. It is difficult to believe that Trump is not dedicated to the principle that this country’s diplomatic bonafides be flushed down the toilet, as he delegates himself to be our greatest foreign policy disaster.
File it under “can’t hurt to ask” that is unless you are going to bitch and moan if the answer is no.
Because it’s in the USA’s long-term plan. China is interested in it, as well.
Let them keep their ice-covered toxic dump. Suicide, alcoholism and unemployment are all very high, so it’s not like we’d be a detriment.
“The idea of purchasing Greenland was first mooted during the 1860s under the presidency of Andrew Johnson.
In 1867, a report by the US State Department suggested that Greenland’s strategic location, along with its abundance of resources, made it an ideal acquisition.
But no official move was made until 1946, when Harry Truman offered Denmark $100m for the territory. He had earlier toyed with the idea of swapping land in Alaska for strategic parts of Greenland, AP reported.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49416740
@KNOWITALL I know, I read that article too.
My question was: why did Trump think that now, August 2019, the Danes would be interested?
@elbanditoroso If I had to guess, he probably thinks it’s another sh&thole place that could use some prosperity. See my previous reply as to why he would think that.
“Greenland is not for sale. Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland. I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told the newspaper Sermitsiaq during a visit to Greenland.
As well as this:
“The concept came up and…strategically it’s interesting,” Trump told reporters from the tarmac in Morristown, New Jersey, as he prepared to board Air Force One.
A defense treaty between Denmark and the United States dating back to 1951 gives the U.S. military rights over the Thule Air Base in northern Greenland.
Well, looks like trump is throwing a temper tantrum because he couldn’t have his Greenland toy.
I can’t believe he’s actually snubbing Denmark over this. You can’t make this shit up.
I know. I know. God. Is it 2020 yet??
A real president would use diplomatic means (like the State Department, the Secretary of State, the US Ambassador) to begin this type of conversation, and would do so quietly as to spare his administration embarrassment if the negotiations fell through.
A real president would have gotten advice from others instead of shooting from the hip.
Read this column in today’s Washington Post about the possible real reason Trump cancelled.
Summary: Obama
OMG! That was just insane. Not EVEN what I was expecting @elbanditoroso.
(Obama has plans to visit Denmark at the end of September) ”Trump was scared of the likely contrast,” opined David Frum. “Trump knows Obama is bigger than he is, around the world as well as in the United States. That knowledge tortures Trump.” And here I thought he was blind to how we all felt about him vs Obama.
Great opinion piece.
Everything we’ve seen from Trump makes it inescapable: An unflattering contrast with an Obama visit unquestionably would be something Trump wants to avoid.
After all, Trump regularly bases major policy decisions on a zeal to undo whatever Obama did — as if blotting out the Obama presidency is a measure of his own success — even as Trump and his propagandists regularly go to extraordinary lengths to create the cult-like illusion that he’s loved everywhere.”
“This includes claiming that polls showing his deep unpopularity are media fabrications and regularly inflating and obsessing over crowd sizes. Trump’s hypersensitivity to how he’s received extends abroad, too: After his trip to London, Trump claimed that large protests there simply never happened.”
“In the end, whether Trump’s rationale for the nixed trip is fear of Obama, or rage at his Greenland fiasco, or a desire to sow international disruption, at the core of Trump’s decision-making, moral emptiness and megalomania and total lack of concern for the national interest are all that’s left.”
What do you mean “who cares?” I care. The buffoon is our president and it’s people like you who put him in office.
After reading the op ed @elbanditoroso posted, I’m pretty sure that what happened is he learned that Obama will be visiting Greenland at the end of September and trump had to scramble to come up with an excuse not to go. I can only imagine the insane conversations.
“No you can not stop Obama from going to Greenland.”
“Well, if I owned Greenland I could!”
G: Would you like to come to my house to talk?
T: Sure…...hey, you have a nice house, can I buy it?
G: Uhh…...it’s not for sale.
T: Well then…you can keep your dumb house! And your dumb fish! I didn’t want it anyway!
Alrighty then.
@raum, You do realize that Greenland (G) is not a country, don’t you?
It belongs to Denmark.
It was a real hoot listening to the news anchors saying that Greenland was a country, and most most Trump supporters could not even find Greenland on a map.
As with most things, I think it was just a rouse, Trump likes to get this kind of reaction out of you.
Well now we’re getting into semantics. “Country” is not always synonymous with “sovereign nation”. Greenland is not a “sovereign nation”, neither is Scotland or Wales, but all are considered “countries” in common parlance; they’re constituent countries of a larger kingdom.
@Yellowdog Technically I referred to it as a house.
And, yes, I realize that Greenland isn’t a house.
Yeah. Really have to respect a president who gets his kicks out of upsetting his constituents like a 13 year old mean girl. @Yellowdog.
@Dutchess_III Well that’s odd, I don’t recall telling you how I voted, as I never discuss MY personal vote here.
And honestly, imo, Democrats put him there and are doing it again. So keep it up! haha!
You know you really should have cared when Obama made poor people who couldn’t afford healthcare PAY in. Dumbest move ever.
There you go again @KNOWITALL. “You made me do it.” As someone pointed out in another thread, that’s a classic wife beater defense.
Having to pay into the ACA was dependent on their income.
And in every state that refused to expand Medicare, the governor was a Republican.
Greenland is a country.
Just like Puerto Rico is a country.
@Dutchess_III We aren’t talking about domestic abuse. I’ve been in a domestic abuse situation and survived, so I don’t really appreciate the hilarity you obviously find in that kind of comment.
Furthermore, the individual mandate penalty is a real thing, you should research it like the rest of us did years ago. Even in 2018 that penalty was in effect.
Medicare expansion:
The bottom line is that the expansion of Medicaid eligibility is a key provision of the Affordable Care Act. ... However, the states that opted out of Medicaid expansion would see a net increase in spending in the short term because they would spend more on uncompensated care.
https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1019
I didn’t indicate that I found it funny. But blaming the victim is a thing. Blaming the dems for trump is victim blaming.
Yes, the individual mandate penalty was a real thing but whether you had to actually pay it or not depended on your income.
Oh sure. They came up with bullshit reasons not to expand Medicaid because it was Obama’s idea.
@Dutchess_III So now all Democrats are VICTIMS? You want me to post a list of violent Democrat attacks on women, elderly, immigrants and minorities over the last few years?
Give me a freakin break.
I don’t know too many couples making under $20k a year, but yes, those were exempted.
The link I posted is for a Healthcare website, that doesn’t seem to lean either way politically, so I’m not sure “Obama” was the reason unless you can source that.
I don’t think Trump thinks…
@KNOWITALL
Funny, for someone who’s now all like “who cares? It’s a shithole with nothing but frozen fish” you sure were fawning over the idea of acquiring Greenland earlier.
@Darth_Algar I never ‘cared’ about Greenland.
I saw some benefits to them and to us in a purchase, but it’s like the Baltic properties in Monopoly, it’s not that important. That’s why I researched the imports/ exports and trade.
I said Trump probably thinks it’s a S&ithole and it kind of sounds like it when people would rather commit suicide than live there.
Well, lets start with This link shows which states originally opted out and which states have since opted in.
Governors in 2016:
Texas. Greg Abbott. R
Wyoming, Matt Mead, R
Alabama, Robert J. Bentley, R
Arizona, Doug Ducey, R (has since adopted.)
Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson R (has since adopted.)
Utah, Gary Herbert R (expected to expand in 2019 / 2020)
Idaho,Butch Otter, R (expected to expand in 2019 / 2020)
Nebraska, Pete Ricketts, R (expected to expand in 2019 / 2020)
Florida, Rick Scott, R
Kansas, Browback, R
Mississippi, Phil Bryant R
Missouri, Jay Nixon D
NC, Pat McCrory, R
Oklahoma, Mary Fallin R
Here is another handy dandy chart.
I’m exhausted and I have to go pick up kids from school, but the last 30 minutes of researching shows that virtually every state who initially refused to expand had a Republican governor, except for Missouri. Many of those states have since expanded or are considering expanding. Kansas is an example. We now have a Democrat for governor and she’s working on expanding.
Feel free to do your own research that shows I’m wrong @KNOWITALL.
@KNOWITALL
So if Trump probably thinks it’s a shithole (granted, he considers anywhere that isn’t one of his branded properties to be a shithole, even the White House), and if it’s not that important, then why’s he so gung-ho about buying it?
@Dutchess_III I don’t need to research it. You are providing the state’s who opted out, I simply gave you the REASON they opted out-two different things.
@Darth_Algar I posted that above earlier, long-term strategy.
Maybe he knows more than I do about what’s under the ice. (shrug)
Well, somehow those reasons evaporated because many states have changed their minds and are opting back in. There are only a few hold outs left.
@KNOWITALL
And thinking long-term, knowing what’s under that ice, what on Earth would make anyone think that Denmark would be even remotely interested in selling it?
@Darth_Algar Wow, ya’ll aren’t doing any of your own research today, except Dutchess.
You’re welcome.
Proposals to purchase Greenland from Denmark have occasionally been made both within the United States Government and in direct offer to the Danish Crown. While the United States has acquired other Danish territory, namely the Danish West Indies, Greenland remains an autonomous country of Denmark…..
Rasmussen declined all three options, and returned to Denmark.[14][19] He told U.S. ambassador to Denmark Josiah Marvel, ”[w]hile we owe much to America I do not feel that we owe them the whole island of Greenland”.[17].....
2019 proposal
In 2017, the Danish government declined a proposal from the People’s Republic of China to purchase an abandoned naval base on Greenland over concerns the arrangement would strain its relations with the United States.[26]
According to the Wall Street Journal, American president Donald Trump later discussed the idea of purchasing Greenland with senior advisers.[27][28] News of the reported discussions first broke in August 2019, prompting rebuttals by the Premier of Greenland Kim Kielsen, Greenland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ane Lone Bagger, the Greenlandic representatives in the Parliament of Denmark, Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen, previous Prime Minister of Denmark and de facto leader of the opposition coalition Lars Løkke Rasmussen, and members of other parties, from the far-left Red–Green Alliance to the far-right Danish People’s Party. Statements ranged from simple diplomatic comments that “Greenland is not for sale” to strong refusals calling the idea of a sale of Greenland and its people “completely ridiculous”. Some politicians suggested that Trump’s proposal to buy Greenland had to be a joke.[27][29]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_United_States_purchase_of_Greenland
FYI, for those who might like to know, just for shits and giggles, Butch Otter is no longer governor of Idaho.
I know. But he was in 2014 when Medicaide expansion started.
@kritiper Shits and Giggles. Sounds like a good name for a new childrens’ board game.
@Dutchess Yeah Ol’ Butchie opted out but then a measure was put on the ballot and the people voted for it. And that’s how it was opted in.
Ignorance.
And/or, his “advisors” have analysts who have determined that when this happens:
1. Trump says and does something that is dirt-stupid to intelligent people.
2. Anti-Trump people and the media point out how stupid it is.
3. Anti-Trump people and the media keep going on and on about how stupid it is.
4. Anti-Trump people and the media pay less attention to more serious/important things going on, so the circus acts as a smokescreen.
5. Non-anti-Trump people and anti-intellectual people react AGAINST the reaction, and Trump’s support statistics actually go up.
It does seem to be a pattern, and I can easily see the string-pullers having noticed this and encouraging Trump to do as much awful nonsense as possible, especially while other things are going on that they want to get reduced public attention.
Trump doesn’t know how to “think”.
Besides this whole “fake news” thing is to get the media and people to stop thinking about Iran and Afghanistan.
I assume the powers that can actually influence Iran and Afghanistan are not becoming side tracked. I assume that those that physically control our government are staying focused. They aren’t all over Twitter and FB laughing hysterically. They’re workin.
@KNOWITALL
Yes, I am aware that there have been proposals made to purchase Greenland in the past. That is of no relevance to the present.
Well we purchased Alaska and Hawaii in the past too. I remember an assembly in Kindergarten to mark when “we” bought Hawaii. And we bought the Louisiana territory. And Kansas. And Long Island. And New York.
Did you hear? Denmark just offered to buy the US from Russia. ~
@Dutchess_lll
We didn’t buy Hawaii. Hawaii was a sovereign kingdom. Why would any nation sell its sovereignty? We annexed Hawaii in a US-backed coup d’etat led mostly by white businessmen who had settled in Hawaii.
And Alaska was openly on the market by a country that was over its head in debt, and desperately trying just to hold its mainland empire together, nevermind maintaining overseas territories.
People bring up these huge land purchases from the past, but ignore a geo-political context that just doesn’t exist in the world today (and hasn’t for a century).
”People bring up these huge land purchases from the past, but ignore a geo-political context that just doesn’t exist in the world today (and hasn’t for a century).
Thank you. That was exactly my point.
I don’t know the specifics of Alaska and Hawaii tho.
It seems like there’s consistently a race to find historical precedent to ameliorate Trump’s questionable comments and ideas and rarely do the provided examples hold up. Trump is one-of-a-kind.
Dumbest president to ever hold the office.
@Desmosthenes When Trump sticks his cigars in an interns vagina in the Oval Office and leaves his jizz on a dress paraded around court and the press, I may buy that.
Not even getting into shady real estate cons or foundation schemes.
Jesus. The stupid. It burns.
Response moderated (Personal Attack)
Deflection again. Bill Clinton being a shit doesn’t excuse Trump being a lunatic.
Response moderated
Response moderated
I’ll take Slick Willy and Dubya and The Gipper and The Peanut Farmer and Tricky Dick all in a heartbeat before Drumpf.
It’s not a fair fight for any poor soul attempting to match Trump’s tasteless liabilities with any of his predecessors. There really is no contest. Were Trump to wake up tomorrow, and from then on out exhibit the stellar characteristics of our greatest Presidents, it would not compensate for the horrendous damage he has done to this country, his office and the patina of their reputations.
I second that emotion @jca2.
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
