Donald Trump postponed Denmark visit in a tweet after Greenland rebuff. Now the Danes are insulted
- Danish PM Mette Frederiksen rejected Donald Trump’s idea of buying Greenland as ‘absurd’
- Now Denmark’s Queen Margrethe has been drawn into the fray
Parliamentarians and former government ministers slammed the president’s behaviour as juvenile, undiplomatic and insulting, though the government itself has yet to comment on the visit’s cancellation and instead scheduled a news conference for the afternoon.
“It’s an insult from a close friend and ally,” Michael Aastrup Jensen, a member of the Danish parliament with the influential centre-right Venstre party, told The Washington Post.
He said Trump’s interest in purchasing Greenland took the country by surprise and was initially widely considered to be a joke, before Danes realised the full extent of “this disaster”.
Jensen said Danish lawmakers felt misled and “appalled” by the president, who “lacks even basic diplomatic skills,” he said.
“There was no word [ahead of time] about: ‘I want to buy Greenland and that’s why I’m coming’.”