“I thought it was an inappropriate statement. All she had to do is say no, we wouldn’t be interested,” he said. “She’s not talking to me. She’s talking to the United States of America. You don’t talk to the United States that way, at least under me.”
President Donald Trump
President Donald Trump is conducting foreign policy very differently from his predecessor. Mainly, in how the US is treated by foreign powers.
President Trump recently explored the possibility of purchasing the island of Greenland from Denmark. The President even joked about the potential deal on twitter tweeting “I promise not to do this to Greenland!”
I promise not to do this to Greenland! pic.twitter.com/03DdyVU6HA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2019
Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, apparently did not find the President’s tweet amusing, or even remotely possible. Frederiksen called the President’s suggestion “absurd”.
Unlike his predecessor, however, President Trump was unwilling to take the dismissal and rude behavior of PM Frederiksen lying down.
Trump fired back at PM Frederiksen’s remarks saying that “She’s not talking to me. She’s talking to the United States of America.“
Critics of the President who might be quick to side with Frederiksen and label Trump’s idea as “absurd” should keep in mind that the idea was first floated by President Harry Truman.
To further drive home the point Trump followed up his comments with an additional tweet, writing “For the record, Denmark is only at 1.35% of GDP for NATO spending. They are a wealthy country and should be at 2%. We protect Europe and yet, only 8 of the 28 NATO countries are at the 2% mark. The United States is at a much, much higher level than that.”
Despite the President standing up for our country, outlets such as Politico have already tried spinning the spat in favor of Denmark.
"All she had to do was say 'No,''" Trump said of the Danish PM's rejection of his "absurd" offer to purchase Greenland, which he cited as the reason he's scrapping his scheduled September visit https://t.co/VXuZYBvXH3 pic.twitter.com/zDkHWb2jau
— POLITICO (@politico) August 21, 2019


