Donald Trump Jr. will visit Greenland this week after his father, President-elect Donald Trump, suggested last month that the U.S. should take ownership of the Danish territory “for the purpose of national security.”
Trump Jr. will head to the island on Tuesday for a short video shoot for a podcast and has no plans to meet with any government officials, The Associated Press reported. Denmark’s foreign ministry added to CNN that the trip is not an “official American visit” and, as such, it had no further comment on the matter.
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The president-elect confirmed the visit in a post on his Truth Social platform, saying he had heard the people of Greenland “are ‘MAGA’” while vowing that the island would benefit “tremendously” under U.S. control.
“My son, Don Jr, and various representatives, will be traveling there to visit some of the most magnificent areas and sights,” the elder Trump wrote. “Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our Nation. We will protect it, and cherish it, from a very vicious outside World. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!”
LEIFF JOSEFSEN/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images
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Trump re-upped his suggestion that the U.S. take control of Greenland late last month after first saying in 2019 that he was weighing a “large real estate deal” to buy the autonomous territory.
“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” the president-elect said last month while announcing his choice for U.S. ambassador to Denmark.
Both then and now the comments have come as a surprise to officials in Greenland and Denmark, who have dismissed the suggestions and said the island was not for sale.
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“Greenland is ours,” Múte Egede, Greenland’s prime minister, said in a statement last month. “We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our years-long fight for freedom.”