Date: 2025-07-02 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00027898
GREENLAND
TRUMP IS NO DIPLOMAT!
Trump had ‘fiery’ call with Danish prime minister over Greenland
TRUMP IS NO DIPLOMAT!
Trump had ‘fiery’ call with Danish prime minister over Greenland
President Donald Trump listens in the Roosevelt Room at
the White House, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, in Washington.
(AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Original article 1: https://thehill.com/policy/international/5105602-donald-trump-greenland-denmark/
Original article 2: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/26/world/europe/trump-greenland-denmark.html
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
I have not liked Trump for a very long time. My dislike for Trump was at an already high level, but increased after watching Trump's management style when our paths crossed in Atlantic City as his casino initiatives were imploding. That was around 30 years ago ... and Trump has degraded substantially since that time!
Trump is brilliant ... but essentially evil and stupid. He does not 'give a damn' about anyone except himself, and in my book he is not fit to be the President anything, let alone the President of United States. He did damage in his first term as President, and is likely to do much more damage in his second term!
I am not a fan of the mainstream American media. It is around 10 years since they went into a serious downward spiral in terms of their objectiveness, fact checking and core professionalism. This included considerable downsizing of their experienced reporters and reliance on younger staff with limited perspective. For an older person like myself, this lack of real historic perspective is the root cause of much reporting that is dangerously superficial!
In my view, the Trump interaction with Denmark is a huge distraction ... typical of Trump. My expectation that there will be absolutely no meaningful change other than, perhaps, a once friendly country becoming annoyed at Trump and his henchmen, together with a lot of other countries responding favorably to Denmark at the expense of the United States. Again, in my view, Trump is obnoxious and essentially incompetent which is a toxic mix that could result in an uncontrollable international crisis!
Though Trump is a mad fool, that does not mean he is not incredibly dangerous. He has been a 'spoilt brat' all his life and he is not going to change. His behavior reminds me of a school playground where the 'bully' gets a following and is a hero, while the decent children are ignored. Trump has been a bully all his life and now way too old to change! But giving this bully the power of the US Presidency is dangerous. It is far from clear whether the 'guard-rails' that have been designed into the US constitutional structure will be strong enough to withstand a Trump driven onslaught
It is a week now since the inauguration of President Trump. The week since then has seen a flurry of actions by the incoming President, most of which send shivers through me. It seems that he will be even far worse than I ever imagined would be possible.
The interaction with Denmark over Greenland is a symbol of the stupidity that is Trump ... and now also the United States of America!
The United States really does not have many 'friends'. I am British by birth and British by ongoing choice. I have lived in the USA since the late 1960s and worked during a long life in more than 50 countries around the world. This has given me a perspective on America and Americans that is quite unusual, and to be honest I am not impressed. The country has huge resources ... but the 'values' of a lot of the people who populate the country are much more about 'greed' than 'good'.
If people around the world take a good hard look at what America truly stands for, they may well decide to 'gice up' on being 'nice' to the USA and look elsewhere.
This is not a 'hypthetical' for the future, but actually an recognition ... albeit rather overdue ... that US influence around the world has been in terminal decline for quite a long time ... a few decades rather than a few years!
Internationally, the USA has not been associated with any international 'wins' of significance since the Gulf War in the time of George W. Bush (Bush 1) in the early 1990s.
I grew up in the UK ... and I am sure that the history and current affairs that I learned as a child had a pro-British slant ... but the impact Britain had on the world ... and France, and Spain and Portugal and others at different times in history was essentially more constructive than anything that the United States has actually done. Maybe US support during WWII was an exception ... but maybe even that was more about money than it was about friendship!
Trump ... more than anything else is going to make the world look very hard at why they would want to be friends with the United States!
Not a great prospect!
Peter Burgess
Written by Laura Kelly - 01/24/25 4:08 PM ET
President Trump reportedly held a “fiery” call with Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen over the president’s insistence that U.S. control of Greenland is necessary for American national security.
A 45 minute call between Trump and Frederiksen last week spiraled into confrontation, senior European officials told the Financial Times. Trump, at that time the president-elect, was reportedly aggressive and threatened tariffs against the NATO ally.
National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes did not comment on the tone of the call but said Trump is focused on Greenland as part of the larger competition between China and Russia.
“President Trump has been clear that the safety and security of Greenland is important to the United States as China and Russia make significant investments throughout the Arctic region,” Hughes said in a statement.
“The President is committed to not only protecting U.S. interests in the Arctic but also working with Greenland to ensure mutual prosperity for both nations,” he added.
Trump has focused intently on plans to take over Greenland, an autonomous Arctic island that is part of the kingdom of Denmark. During his inauguration speech, he referred to the U.S. as a growing nation expanding its territory. Trump has also called for the U.S. to retake the Panama Canal and mused about annexing Canada.
Trump and Frederiksen spoke by phone on Jan. 15. The Danish prime minister said at the time she referred to remarks by the chair of Greenland’s Parliament that the island is not for sale and that it is up to Greenland to make its decision about its independence.
She also offered for Denmark to shoulder a greater responsibility for security in the Arctic, emphasized that Danish companies contribute to growth and jobs in the United States, and that the EU and the U.S. have a common interest in strengthened trade, according to a readout from her office.
The Trump transition team did not release details of that phone call, but Trump said at a press conference on Jan. 7 that he would not rule out economic or military force to take control of the Arctic island.
Speaking from the Oval Office hours after he was sworn in as president, Trump doubled-down on his intent to subsume Greenland and said, “I’m sure that Denmark will come along.”
But Frederiksen is viewed as a no-nonsense, security-focused professional who was critical of the Biden administration’s slow drip of weapons for Ukraine, said one American foreign policy expert who met with the Danish prime minister.
“She’s like the John Bolton of Europe; she’s hard-charging,” the expert said, referring to Trump’s onetime national security adviser whom the president has extreme animosity toward, criticizing him as stupid and a war monger. Trump recently pulled Bolton’s security detail that was in place over threats of assassination from Iran.
Frederiksen taking a tough line against Trump could have provoked the conversation to spiral, the expert speculated.
“She doesn’t seem like the type that would give any ground. Not that she’s unreasonable, but not the kind that would take any s‑‑‑.”
Tags Arctic Canada China denmark Donald Trump Greenland John Bolton Mette Frederiksen National Security Council NATO Panama Canal russia
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A Trump plane in Greenland, earlier this month, as Donald Trump Jr. visited the country.
Credit...Emil Stach/Ritzau Scanpix, via Associated Press
Trump Alarms Denmark in an Icy Exchange Over Greenland
Written by Steven Erlanger and Jeanna Smialek ... Steven Erlanger reported from Berlin and Jeanna Smialek from Brussels.
Jan. 26, 2025
President Trump told Denmark’s leader he wanted to take over Greenland, European officials say. Denmark has asked its E.U. allies not to inflame the situation until Mr. Trump’s intentions are clearer.
It was a contentious, aggressive telephone call, five days before the inauguration of President Trump on Jan. 20.
Speaking to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark, Mr. Trump insisted he wanted the United States to take over Greenland, the massive and autonomous Danish island that occupies a strategic part of the ocean as the ice caps melt and new shipping lanes open up.
The tone and content of the icy exchange was described by two European officials who were briefed on the 45-minute call and requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic. The United States has not publicly commented on the call.
Ms. Frederiksen made various suggestions for more cooperation on military and economic issues, but insisted that Greenland, which already hosts an important American base, was not for sale, according to the European officials.
Since that Jan. 15 call, whose aggressive tenor was earlier reported by The Financial Times, Denmark has tried to calm the waters, urging its partners in the European Union not to inflame the situation until matters become more clear, the officials said. The issue of Greenland is not on the agenda for an E.U. foreign affairs council meeting in Brussels on Monday, for example.
If Mr. Trump decides to pressure Denmark with economic means, through tariffs, the European Union itself would be expected to respond as a whole with countertariffs, said Zaki Laïdi, a professor at Sciences Po and an adviser to the former E.U. foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell Fontelles.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark insisted that Greenland was not
for sale in a phone call with President Trump, European officials said.
Credit...Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix, via Reuters
“I was told that Trump is quite serious about Greenland, and it’s going to be a huge challenge for the E.U., if we don’t react strongly to it,” Mr. Laïdi said. He confirmed that “the Danes are saying, ‘Keep it down,’ but they’re scared.”
That sense of foreboding was obvious in Davos, Switzerland, where European leaders gathered last week with corporate executives and academics for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting. Rumors about Mr. Trump’s call with Ms. Frederiksen were rampant at the gathering, as was nervousness about what a second Trump administration will mean for Europe as a whole.
For now, the Danes are concentrating on dialogue. On Friday, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Denmark’s foreign minister and prime minister during the first Trump administration, had a 20-minute telephone discussion with the new U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio. Afterward, Mr. Rasmussen said that the two countries had agreed to discuss “the Arctic region” and that the conversation, which included other issues like Ukraine, had a “good and constructive tone.”
The State Department, for its part, said that Mr. Rubio had “reaffirmed the strength of the relationship” between the two countries. The two men, the State Department said, “discussed the importance of deepening bilateral and regional cooperation on security and defense, economic and trade matters, and ending the war in Ukraine.”
Officially, Denmark has said little about the phone call between Mr. Trump and Ms. Frederiksen. A statement from Ms. Frederiksen’s office immediately afterward made no mention of sharp disagreements but emphasized trade with the United States and talked of cooperation, dialogue and enhanced investment in security by Denmark.
“In the conversation, the Prime Minister emphasized the importance of strengthening security in the Arctic, and that the Kingdom of Denmark is ready to shoulder even greater responsibility for this,” the statement said. In the statement, Ms. Frederiksen cited the chairman of the Greenlandic Parliament, Mute Egede, saying that Greenland is not for sale and argued that “it is up to Greenland itself to make a decision on independence.”
A Royal Danish Navy frigate in Greenland last year.
Credit...Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix, via Reuters
The officials who were briefed on the phone call and Mr. Laïdi suggested that Mr. Trump’s intentions were unclear, and that he might move to encourage Greenlanders to vote for independence in a referendum and then to bind themselves to the United States. Or he may want to pressure Denmark and the European Union with tariffs. Brussels is working with the Danes to strike the right tone and to figure out what Mr. Trump really wants, one official said.
In a response to questions on Sunday, the Danish prime minister’s office said it did “not recognize the interpretation of the conversation given by anonymous sources.”
Under a 2009 agreement with Denmark, Greenland can declare independence only after a successful referendum — which Mr. Egede has suggested might be held in tandem with the island’s upcoming parliamentary election in April.
Mr. Trump has called U.S. control over Greenland “an absolute necessity” for Western security, and on Saturday, in a gaggle with reporters, said “I think we’re going to have it.”
Friis Arne Petersen, a former Danish ambassador to Washington, said that “Europe, Greenland and the rest of the world must take Donald Trump’s statements very seriously, because they were carefully prepared.”
“The terms used and their context left no room for interpretation,” he said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro. Mr. Trump’s interest in Greenland was more commercial in his first term — when he first offered to buy it — but is now predominantly about security, Mr. Petersen said.
The issue of Greenland “is of the utmost importance to the E.U.,” Mr. Laïdi said. “Our credibility is at stake. The Danish want to keep a low profile but that’s not the way the world works.”
Greenland, with a population of around 60,000, was a Danish colony until 1953, and became self-ruling with its own Parliament in 1979. It remains a territory of Denmark, with Copenhagen exercising control over its foreign and defense policy.
A correction was made on Jan. 26, 2025: An earlier version of this article misstated the year that Greenland ceased to be a colony of Denmark. It was 1953, not 1979. When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an error, please let us know at nytnews@nytimes.com.Learn more
Steven Erlanger is the chief diplomatic correspondent in Europe and is based in Berlin. He has reported from over 120 countries, including Thailand, France, Israel, Germany and the former Soviet Union.
Jeanna Smialek is the Brussels bureau chief for The Times.
A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 27, 2025, Section A, Page 5 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump Unnerves Denmark in Icy Call on Greenland. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper