Danish government is horrified to learn that Trump is serious about his desire for Greenland

One of the challenges of Donald Trump’s tendency to say outlandish and implausible things is that it can be difficult to know when it’s a distraction and when it’s serious. Unfortunately for Denmark, it appears that Trump’s obsession with taking over Greenland appears to be the latter. According to a Financial Times reportA call between Trump and Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen fell through and now the Danes are freaking out.

The story goes that Trump and Frederiksen spoke on the phone last week for about 45 minutes in what was expected to be a bit of feeling between the two sides, given Trump’s very public declaration that he would like to take Greenland off Denmark’s hands. . . Apparently not many jokes were exchanged before Trump became angry.

Although Frederiksen would have expressed his willingness to cooperate with the United States, which could allow the United States set up a tent for military bases and unearth the island’s mineral wealth, that was not enough for Trump. He wants to buy Greenland outright and was reportedly unwilling to change his position. “He was very firm. “It was a cold shower,” a European official told the Financial Times. “Before it was difficult to take it seriously. But I do think it is serious and potentially very dangerous.”

So that’s not cool. Officials described the Danish government as being in “crisis mode” following the call and said they are “completely scared by this.” Denmark, which is a NATO member along with the United States, now faces the barrel of potential tariffs that would seek to inflict damage on the country’s economy until it is willing to part with Greenland.

They are right to be worried. According to the US Department of StateThe United States is Denmark’s largest export market, and business between the two accounts for almost 80,000 jobs for Danes. So there’s plenty of opportunity for Trump to apply pressure, and he’s reportedly sending some of the most annoying people possible to negotiate. Ken Howery, a former member of the PayPal mafia along with Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, is reportedly America’s point person, pending Senate approval. And there’s another Thiel demon, Dryden Brown, who seems ready to seize the opportunity to turn Greenland into a techno-utopia, whether they want it or not.

For what it’s worth, they don’t want it. Greenland isn’t exactly thrilled about being treated like a political soccer ball. Although the island has only 57,000 inhabitants, it has its own autonomous government, and its leader, Múte B. Egede, has stated that they are not interested in becoming US property. So far, that doesn’t seem to have been a factor in the entire conversation. Instead, Trump and company are looking beyond real people and thinking exclusively about exploiting the earth.