Greenland leader says ‘we are not for sale’ after Trump suggests US takeover

Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede has said the island nation is “not for sale and never will be” after US President-elect Donald Trump suggested the US should take it over.

“The United States of America believes possession and control of Greenland is absolutely necessary for the purposes of National Security and Liberty throughout the world,” Trump wrote on social media Monday morning. Greenland, a large icy Arctic island with more than 50,000 inhabitants, is a self-governing territory of Denmark. The Greenland leader quickly responded.

Egede wrote: “Greenland is ours.” “We are not sold and we will never be sold. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”

This post came hours after Trump announced his intentions Nominated Ken Howery for the post of US Ambassador to Denmark. Howery was the US ambassador to Sweden during Trump’s first term.

This is not the first time that Trump has suggested that the United States somehow buy the island. In 2019, during Trump’s first term, he said was thinking of buying Greenland for strategic reasons. The Greenland administration announced that the island was not sold even then.

Over the weekend, Trump proposed that the United States take over the Panama Canal, which is owned and operated by the Panama Canal Authority, owned by the Panamanian government. According to the US State Department, the US uses the canal more than any other country, with 72% of all ships going to or from US ports.

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino responded that “every square meter” of the canal “belongs to Panama and will continue to belong to Panama.”

“We’ll see about that!” Trump wrote After Mulio’s answer.

The Panama Canal was built by the United States in the early 20th century and returned to Panama under a treaty in 1977 by former President Jimmy Carter.