Last week reports that Donald Trump had floated the idea of buying the entire country of Greenland were widely dismissed as yet another headline-grabbing stunt from the US president.
Turns out he was deadly serious.
On Tuesday night Trump declared – on Twitter, naturally – that he was cancelling a scheduled meeting with Denmark’s prime minister because she is not interested in discussing a proposed sale.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had called Trump’s musing about buying Greenland – a semi-autonomous territory owned by Denmark – “an absurd discussion” after the former real estate mogul began to talk up the idea.
Since the initial reports of Trump’s desire to do a deal over Greenland, he had said that he was interested in such a deal for strategic purposes on Sunday, but said a purchase was not a priority at this time.
“It’s not No. 1 on the burner,” he told reporters.
The president even joked about his proposal as it came in for ridicule, tweeting a doctored photo of a glistening Trump skyscraper looming over a small village in the Arctic territory.
“I promise not to do this to Greenland,” he joked on Monday.
The White House announced in late July that Trump had accepted an invitation to visit Denmark’s Queen Margrethe and participate in a series of meetings, including with Frederiksen and business leaders.
The trip, set to begin at the end of August, included a stop in Poland for Trump to help commemorate the 80th anniversary of the start of the Second World War.
Trump is expected to go ahead with the Poland portion of the trip.