President Trump faced a fierce European backlash to his reported interest in acquiring Greenland from Denmark, as some lawmakers compared the idea to colonialism on Friday while officials on the island said they welcome investment but not a new owner.
“Of course, Greenland is not for sale,” Greenland’s government said in a statement, echoing earlier remarks by Greenland’s Foreign Minister Ane Lone Bagger.
In its statement, the government said it viewed the reports “as an expression of greater interest in investing in our country and the possibilities we offer.”
In Denmark, which counts the autonomous Greenland as part of its territory, the reaction to Trump’s apparent interest in the strategically located island was far less diplomatic with some politicians characterizing the idea as a joke.
Danish politicians from across the spectrum reacted with bewilderment, ridicule and outright anger over what they perceived to be a deeply inappropriate suggestion.
“The whole idea that another country could buy Greenland — like it should be a colony — is so strange to us,” said Michael Aastrup Jensen, a member of the Danish parliament with the influential center-right Venstre party.
In this photo taken on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2019, icebergs are photographed from the window of an airplane carrying NASA Scientists as they fly on a mission to track melting ice in eastern Greenland.(Mstyslav Chernov)
Another member of his party, former Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, chimed in on Twitter, writing: “It must be an April Fool’s Day joke.”
“The Greenlandic people have their own rights,” Martin Lidegaard, the chairman of the Danish parliament’s foreign policy committee and former foreign minister told The Washington Post. “I hope it is a joke — to not just buy a country but also its people.”
Greenland’s fewer than 60,000 residents — spread out across roughly 850,000 square miles — mostly govern themselves, even though they are part of the kingdom of Denmark. Melting ice could uncover offshore oil resources.
But Greenland has also long been of interest to past American administrations because of its location between the Arctic and the Atlantic oceans, where both China and Russia are increasingly active militarily.
The news of Trump’s interest in purchasing Greenland comes ahead of a planned visit to the Danish capital of Copenhagen next month. Danes are worried this will derail the agenda of Trump’s trip.
“It will suck the oxygen out of the room and it will take over everything,” said Jon Rahbek-Clemmensen, a professor at the Institute for Military Operations at the Royal Danish Defense College.
Even though Trump’s own senior aides are baffled by the idea and are unsure whether to take it seriously, the notion is not without precedent.
Trump is not the first U.S. president to consider such an offer — the Truman administration reportedly offered Denmark $100 million for Greenland’s purchase after World War II. Still, Danes appeared shocked on Friday that the same suggestion could still come up in 2019.
Trump’s interest in acquiring the massive island — technically located in North America but culturally and politically also tied to Europe — was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday evening.
The idea has touched a nerve in Greenland, which has long sought complete independence. Denmark has ruled the island for nearly three hundred years, although it granted Greenland a degree of autonomy in 1979 and complete self-governance in 2009. Still Copenhagen maintains control over defense and foreign affairs.
Greenlanders have since pushed for even greater independence, breaking from the European Union in 1985 to protect its fishing industry. Fishing makes up 90 percent of Greenland’s exports, according to Arctic Today.
Rahbek-Clemmensen described independence as the “raison d’etre” of Greenland politics. All but one of Greenland’s political parties support full independence from Denmark, he said — and the debate now centers not on if, but when Greenland will achieve it.
The United States has long had a military footprint in Greenland because of its strategic location in the Arctic. After the end of the Cold War, however, its significance faded.
But recent efforts by China and Russia to expand their foothold in the region triggered a policy shift under the Obama administration toward a more active U.S. role there.
“They really, really need to get foreign investments to build an economic foundation to become independent one day,” Rahbek-Clemmensen said. “This is where China comes in. Basically China has been very bullish in making investments in mining and infrastructure in Greenland.”
Apart from Greenland’s nationalist party — which is pushing for full independence by 2021 — most Greenlanders recognize that it is unlikely the island will get on the economic footing necessary for a clean break from Denmark anytime soon, according to Rasmus Leander Nielsen, a political scientist at the University of Greenland who has surveyed Greenland public opinion.
Damien Degeorges, a Reykjavík-based consultant specializing in Greenlandic affairs, said that Trump’s interest in Greenland was not irrational. The idea to acquire Greenland, he said, could be read as: “Let’s buy it before the Chinese do.”
“What Greenland wants is money from investments, to develop their economy,” said Degeorges, noting that Europe and the United States had not shown as much interest in the island as China.
“I would not take it literally,” he said of Trump’s idea, but rather as an indication of the American president’s engagement on the issue of China’s expansion.
When Beijing recently attempted to fund infrastructure projects in Greenland, the U.S. government voiced concerns.
But Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen, the former head of the Strategy and Policy Office in the Danish Ministry of Defense, warned that Trump — if serious about the idea of purchasing the island — was risking unraveling years of American policy on Greenland.
The United States had positioned itself as recognizing Denmark’s territorial claim and Greenland’s autonomy, while some other nations have advocated for the island’s full independence, said Rasmussen.
The American goals in Greenland have been focused on upholding its military footprint there, while staying clear of the political crossfire between Denmark and Greenland.
“If you start treating Greenland as real estate without asking the people, then that strategy is in serious trouble,” said Rasmussen.
Mistaking the territory’s independence movement as a green light to purchase it would be a miscalculation of Greenland’s aspirations.
“Greenlanders imagine themselves as independent people,” said Rasmussen, adding that its citizens’ interest in obtaining a status “like Puerto Rico” was unlikely.
NOW, SHE’S OUT … AFTER ASKING FOR AND SECURING permission to visit her elderly grandmother in the West Bank, Rep. RASHIDA TLAIB (D-Mich.) now says she will not go to Israel.
— TLAIB: “Visiting my grandmother under these oppressive conditions meant to humiliate me would break my grandmother’s heart. Silencing me with treatment to make me feel less-than is not what she wants for me – it would kill a piece of me that always stands up against racism and injustice.” The full statement
ISRAEL’S INTERIOR MINISTER ARYEH DERI: “Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is now not coming to Israel. Last night, she sent me a letter asking to allow her to visit her 90-year-old grandmother because this could be the last time to see her. I authorized this humanitarian trip, but it turns out that it was a provocation to embarrass Israel. Her hatred for Israel overcomes her love for her grandmother.”The tweet, for Hebrew speakers…He translated the tweet, and tagged Donald Trump on Twitter
WAPO’S JAMES MCCAULEY, the Post’s Paris correspondent who is on loan to the Jerusalem bureau, and SUFIAN TAHA: “Meet Rashida Tlaib’s grandma: ‘Who wouldn’t be proud of a granddaughter like that?’”: “Rashida Tlaib’s grandmother doesn’t understand why her granddaughter, a sitting U.S. congresswoman, couldn’t visit her as originally planned.
“Muftiyah Tlaib — who says she is somewhere between 85 and her early 90s — lives in the village of Beit Ur al-Fauqa, about 15 miles outside Jerusalem and close to the seam line between Israel and the West Bank, territory that Israel occupied in 1967 after the Six-Day War and that Palestinians hope to see part of a national state someday.
“She lives in the same elegant limestone house in the same sleepy village she has called home since 1974 — the house where the whole village once came to celebrate Rashida Tlaib’s wedding, and the house that today looks directly onto an Israeli settlement with a visible military presence. …
“‘She’s in a big position and she cannot visit her grandmother,’ she laughed, seated in her living room on Friday morning. ‘So what good is the position?’” WaPo
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH … WHEN ISRAELI PM BENJAMIN NETANYAHU denied Reps. ILHAN OMAR (D-Minn.) and TLAIB entry into Israel, he said, in part, this: “[T]he itinerary of the two Congresswomen reveals that their sole purpose is to harm Israel and increase incitement against it. In addition, the organization that is funding their trip is Miftah, which is an avid supporter of BDS, and among whose members are those who have expressed support for terrorism against Israel.”
… WELL, MIFTAH has sponsored trips for members of Congress in the past, and Israel has let them in the country.
IN 2016, Reps. MATT CARTWRIGHT (D-Pa.), DAN KILDEE (D-Mich.), MARK POCAN (D-Wis.), LUIS GUTIERREZ (D-Ill.) and HANK JOHNSON (D-Ga.)all went on a five-day trip to Israel and the West Bank sponsored by the group.
— THE TRIP, which was between May 26 and June 1, 2016, was sponsored by the American Global Institute in addition to Miftah.
— AND ON THAT TRIP, the members of Congress listed their destination as “Palestine – Jerusalem – Ramallah” — not Israel.
— THOSE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS stayed in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Ramallah. They met with PLO officials and MIFTAH board members, went to Hebron and met with its mayor, and tried to tour Gaza, but were prevented by the Israeli government.
BEDMINSTER, TODAY … CNN’S KYLIE ATWOOD and NICK PATON WALSH: “Trump to meet security officials on Afghanistan as concerns mount about U.S. withdrawal”: “President Trump is expected to meet with his top national security advisers on Friday to review a US-Taliban peace plan that could end America’s longest running war — but could also trigger a surrender for the US and a betrayal of the Afghan government, critics say. …
“The peace plan is expected to formalize a significant withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan — from about 15,000 troops to 8,000 or 9,000 troops — and enshrine official commitments by the Taliban to counterterrorism efforts in Afghanistan …
“While the deal will include other elements, including a US-Taliban ceasefire, it also has at least one crucial omission: it is not expected to secure a commitment by the Taliban to hold its fire on the Afghan people or the Afghan military.” CNN
Happy Friday afternoon. SPOTTED: Beto O’Rourke on a morning jog around the Capitol complex in Jackson, Miss., also checking out the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center. Pic … Matt Whitaker at 1789 in Georgetown on Thursday night.Pic
THE LATEST ON GUNS — ANITA KUMAR and GABBY ORR: “‘I’m worried’: Allies fear NRA has lost its power in Washington”: “The National Rifle Association’s internal turmoil is preventing the once-mighty organization from crafting a plan to blunt the latest gun control push, highlighting the group’s weakness at a crucial political moment.
“The disarray at the NRA is alarming allies who say President Donald Trump and Congress appear to have a brief opening to pass legislation while the group is so politically feeble that it isn’t able to aggressively lobby lawmakers against proposals or hold them accountable for their votes … Multiple Republican Senate offices say they haven’t heard from the NRA … The NRA has a net negative rating for the first time.” POLITICO
CHINA LATEST — “Trump administration plans $8 billion fighter jet sale to Taiwan, angering China,” by WaPo’s Ellen Nakashima and Anne Gearan: “The State Department late Thursday submitted the package for informal review … Lawmakers from both parties had questioned whether the White House would scuttle the sale to soften the ground for a U.S.-China trade deal, or otherwise use the fighter jets as a bargaining chip in deadlocked negotiations. …
“Taiwan requested 66 American-made fighter jets, which lawmakers have said is a test of U.S. resolve. The move is likely to anger China, which could follow through on threats to sanction companies that make the jets. The United States has not sold new fighter jets to Taiwan since the George H.W. Bush administration.” WaPo
— MEANWHILE … “Chinese, Russian Warplanes Test U.S. Patience in Skies Near South Korea,” by WSJ’s Andrew Jeong in Seoul: “The aerial campaigns come as Beijing vows to strengthen its military alliance with Moscow, heightening tensions across the Asia-Pacific region as the U.S. and China jockey for power there. The Korean Peninsula is once again providing a convenient stage for military provocations, as it did during the Cold War.” WSJ
THE INVESTIGATIONS … KYLE CHENEY and ANDREW DESIDERIO: “House Democrats to mine intel to build Trump impeachment case”: “The Intelligence Committee’s involvement could provide Democrats with more evidence against Trump that could strengthen their case against him. …
“Traditionally, an impeachment process has involved the public airing of allegations and evidence against a sitting president. But counterintelligence information, by its nature, is classified and cannot be publicly released or discussed — presenting lawmakers with a new challenge when making the public case for Trump’s ouster.” POLITICO
WHO HAD ‘OVERSTOCK CEO’ IN THEIR RUSSIAGATE MAD LIBS? — “Overstock C.E.O. Takes Aim at ‘Deep State’ After Romance With Russian Agent,” by NYT’s Michael Corkery: “It was the start of a three-year relationship between the e-commerce executive, Patrick Byrne, and the young woman, Maria Butina, that became romantic at times. …
“Mr. Byrne’s relationship became widely known on Monday, when his company took the unusual step of issuing a news release that called attention to it. In the release, which was put out in response to a report that Mr. Byrne had been involved in the federal inquiry into the 2016 presidential election, Mr. Byrne said that he had been helping law enforcement agents, whom he referred to as ‘Men in Black,’ with their ‘Clinton Investigation’ and ‘Russia Investigation.’” NYT
FAMILY SEPARATION REVERBERATIONS — “Migrant kids separated at border faced abuse in foster homes,” by AP’s Garance Burke, Juliet Linderman and Martha Mendoza with PBS’ “Frontline” in Santa Ana, Calif.: “A review of 38 legal claims obtained by The Associated Press — some of which have never been made public — shows taxpayers could be on the hook for more than $200 million in damages from parents who said their children were harmed while in government custody. …
“[D]ozens of families — separated at the border as part of the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy — … are now preparing to sue the federal government, including several who say their young children were sexually, physically or emotionally abused in federally funded foster care.” AP
HEADS UP — IAN KULLGREN: “Construction workers prepare to battle former ally Trump”: “One of the nation’s largest labor groups embraced Donald Trump at the start of his presidency, in hopes he would create construction jobs and retreat from proposals that might reduce workers’ wages. But now the two sides are on the brink of war, endangering a key bloc of Trump’s support in Midwestern swing states in 2020.
“At issue is a deal gone bad between Trump and North America’s Building Trades Unions over a Labor Department apprenticeship initiative, the politics of which have grown more complicated since last month’s ouster of Secretary Alexander Acosta. Leaders of the union federation worry that the final version will undermine their own job-training programs and create a supply of cheap labor for developers, undercutting high-skilled construction workers who rely on prevailing-wage jobs to make ends meet.” POLITICO
2020 WATCH — ELENA SCHNEIDER in Tipton, Iowa: “Buttigieg lags behind rivals in Iowa after big national splash”: “The 37-year-old mayor has yet to snag a single in-state endorsement in Iowa, and while his campaign has 57 staffers on the ground, it expanded to that number only recently. It’s a sharp contrast to other top Democratic candidates, who made investments in Iowa last winter to try to identify supporters and build a foundation for 2020, knowing the results here will shape the rest of the fight for the Democratic nomination.
“But Buttigieg … hopes his strategy, which he says was partly borne out of modern necessity, has given him the resources to run an accelerated Iowa campaign ahead of next year’s vote.” POLITICO
— LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ: “Kamala Harris launches Spanish-language organizing program”: “The latest iteration specifically aimed at Latinos will have Spanish-speaking staff training voters and providing resources to best mobilize their communities in support of Harris’ presidential campaign. The program is meant to build grassroots energy on the ground that Harris can later plug into through primary and general election states. The initial national project has trained more than 16,000 volunteers across the 50 states.” POLITICO
THE POLICY PRIMARY — DAVID SIDERS: “O’Rourke calls for mandatory gun buyback, licensing”: “The mandatory buyback proposal goes further than most Democrats in the 2020 presidential field, though Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has suggested she supports such a program.
“In addition to banning assault weapons and requiring their forfeiture, O’Rourke said he would work to implement a voluntary buyback program for handguns. He proposed increasing the excise tax on gun manufacturers and fines on gun traffickers to fund buybacks.” POLITICO
— ALEX THOMPSON: “Warren takes on DNA test fallout with sweeping tribal plan”: “At over 9,000 words, the plan is more than double the length of any other proposal she’s introduced during her presidential campaign. … Warren’s exhaustive plan makes no mention of her fraught history on the issue but it does address seemingly every other topic including past treaties, criminal jurisdiction, the Dakota Access pipeline, banking access, roads, Native American contractors, housing, the Indian Health Service, the Bureau of Indian Education, violence against Indigenous women, and many more.
“The Warren team highlighted that she is the first presidential candidate to call for an ‘Oliphant fix,’ a reference to the 1978 Supreme Court decision that said non-Natives on tribal land aren’t automatically subject to tribal government criminal jurisdiction.” POLITICO … Medium post
RACHANA PRADHAN: “Discrimination complaints hit group fighting Trump’s health policies”: “The National Health Law Program, or NHeLP, was founded in 1969 to advocate for health care rights of underserved people. It has grown more prominent in the Trump era, taking on causes like fighting Medicaid work requirements.
“But some of its employees have described an environment allowing mistreatment of minority and LGBTQ employees, including instances of bullying black women; employees telling ‘off-color jokes’ about women and Jewish people; and a ‘sense of not belonging among LGBTQ staff,’ according to a 2018 assessment on its workplace culture obtained by POLITICO.” POLITICO
TV TONIGHT — Bob Costa will sit down with NYT’s Elisabeth Bumiller, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, WaPo’s Toluse Olorunnipa and WSJ’s Jerry Seib at 8 p.m. on PBS’ “Washington Week.”
President Donald Trump phoned up a supporter whose weight he mocked at a rally, a White House official said, after the president mistook the attendee for a protester.
“That guy’s got a serious weight problem,” Trump said during a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Thursday night, as a protester was removed from the arena. “Go home. Start exercising. Get him out of here please. Got a bigger problem than I do. Got a bigger problem than all of us.”
But the person about whose weight Trump joked about turned out to be a supporter near a protester.
Patrick Semansky/AP Photo
A Trump supporter, right, tries to grab a protesters’ sign as President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally, Thursday, Aug. 15, 2019, in Manchester, N.H.
The president called the supporter about the moment and left a voicemail during his Thursday night flight on Air Force One back to New Jersey, where he is spending the week at his golf club, the official said.
The supporter told ABC News that the president did, in fact, call him and leave a voicemail. He said Trump thanked him for his support and for coming to the rally.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump rallies with supporters in Manchester, New Hampshire U.S. August 15, 2019.
Asked if the president apologized, the supporter replied, “No, why would he apologize?”
The White House official was unaware if the supporter had been invited to the White House or to another rally, referring questions about a possible rally invite to the campaign.
“We are open for business, but we’re not for sale,” Greenland’s foreign minister, Ane Lone Bagger, said, according to Reuters.
Lawmakers from two of Denmark’s major political parties torched the idea in statements to Reuters and a Danish broadcaster, while a former U.S. ambassador referred to news of the situation as a “disaster.”
“I am sure a majority in Greenland believes it is better to have a relation to Denmark than the United States, in the long term,” said Danish MP Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, of the Inuit Ataqatigiit party, according to Reuters.
“My immediate thought is ‘No, thank you,’ ” she continued.
Danish conservatives are no more recipient to the idea. A spokesman for the Danish People’s Party, a right-leaning conservative party that represents the third largest party in the country, called the plan “ridiculous.”
“If he is truly contemplating this, then this is final proof, that he has gone mad,” spokesman Soren Espersen told broadcaster DR, according to Reuters.
“The thought of Denmark selling 50,000 citizens to the United States is completely ridiculous,” he reportedly added.
“Oh dear lord. As someone who loves Greenland, has been there 9 times to every corner and loves the people, this is a complete and total catastrophe,” wrote former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Rufus Gifford.
“I was Ambassador to Denmark which means I was Ambassador to Greenland. It is remarkably pristine and complex. A place unlike any other corner of the planet. It simply must be handled with immense care and the best intentions for the people there and the global climate,” he added. “If anyone believes Trump has either in mind, please reconsider your reality.”
Oh dear lord.
As someone who loves Greenland, has been there 9 times to every corner and loves the people, this is a complete and total catastrophe. ❤️ https://t.co/Cs2wHhC6U9
Warren courts Republican voters; Peter Doocy reports.
More polling evidence emerged this week that Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts may be eclipsing Bernie Sanders for second place in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination — a development sure to rattle the already agitated campaign of the senator from Vermont.
And an average of the latest 2020 Democratic presidential nomination polls by aggregator Real Clear Politics now puts Warren at 17.3 percent, slightly ahead of Sanders at 16 percent. None of the other candidates in the record-setting field of some two-dozen White House contenders cracked double digits.
All of these polls were conducted after the second round of Democratic presidential primary debates — which were held two weeks ago. Political pundits and analysts gave Warren high marks for her performance on the debate stage.
Just as important: Warren now has a slight edge over Sanders (and Sen. Kamala Harris) in the Real Clear Politics average of the latest surveys in Iowa, the state that votes first in the presidential nominating calendar. But she trails Sanders by over 3 percentage points in an average of the most recent polls in New Hampshire, which holds the first presidential primary.
Both Warren and Sanders, the party’s two liberal standard-bearers, campaigned in New Hampshire this week. The state – which neighbors both Massachusetts and Vermont – is considered a ‘must win’ for both candidates.
In a moment that encapsulated her steady surge in recent months, a video shot by a CNN reporter of Warren running through a field of cheering supporters at an event at a farm in Franconia, N.H., with the scenic White Mountains as her backdrop, quickly went viral this week.
Like Warren, Sanders also drew healthy crowds during his latest campaign swing in the first-in-the-nation primary state.
But he was also fighting perceptions that his campaign is slipping.
“While you may not know it from recent media coverage, Bernie Sanders is on a positive trajectory in his campaign for president as evidenced by multiple data points,” his campaign argued in a memo released this week.
In a conference call with reporters, Sanders campaign pollster Ben Tulchin repeatedly emphasized that what he considered a flawed and negative media narrative that Sanders is slipping in the polls “is not true.”
Pointing to an analysis of public opinion surveys conducted following last month’s second round of Democratic primary debates by polling website FiveThirtyEight, Tulchin said that a “new independent polling analysis finds that Sanders has gained the most support of any candidate since the second round of debates and is solidly in second place among the field.”
Senior adviser Jeff Weaver specifically took aim at recent reports by CNN, MSNBC and The Washington Post.
Hours later, Sanders targeted both the Post and the New York Times for their coverage of his campaign.
“I talk about (Amazon’s taxes) all of the time,” Sanders said at a town hall in New Hampshire. “And then I wonder why The Washington Post, which is owned by Jeff Bezos, who owns Amazon, doesn’t write particularly good articles about me. I don’t know why.”
And he charged that the “New York Times is not much better” than the Washington Post when it comes to coverage of his presidential campaign.
After the death of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in jail in August 2019, reports emerged that claimed to detail an unusual choice of artwork in the disgraced financier’s New York City apartment some years earlier.
On Aug. 14, the Daily Mail reported that Epstein “had a bizarre portrait of Bill Clinton in a dress hanging in his Manhattan mansion,” adding:
“The picture depicting the former president apparently lounging on a chair in the Oval Office, wearing red heels and posing suggestively in a blue dress redolent of Monica Lewinsky was in a room off the stairway of the Upper East Side townhouse. The dress is also strikingly similar to one worn by Hillary Clinton at the 2009 Kennedy Center Honors.”
The DM has a 2012 pic that allegedly shows the inside of Jeffrey Epstein’s NYC mansion. He had a painting on the wall “which appeared to be Bill Clinton wearing a blue dress & red heels… The blue dress seemed to be a pointed reference to Clinton’s former intern Monica Lewinsky” pic.twitter.com/VyAnk3Bnfn
The Mail included a photograph that an unnamed source claimed to have taken at Epstein’s apartment in October 2012, and that purportedly showed a view of the painting hanging on a wall through an open doorway.
Clinton was an acquaintance of Epstein’s, and his representatives had sought to distance the former president from him, after Epstein was indicted on child-sex-trafficking charges in July. Epstein was awaiting trial in a New York jail when he reportedly took his own life on Aug. 10.
The New York Post appeared to corroborate the Mail’s earlier reporting, citing unnamed “law enforcement sources,” one of whom purportedly told the newspaper:
“[The painting] was hanging up there prominently — as soon as you walked in — in a room to the right. Everybody who saw it laughed and smirked.”
We received multiple inquiries from readers about the veracity of reports that Epstein had once owned the painting, or that it was at one time displayed in his home. So far, we have been unable to independently verify that the artwork was once in Epstein’s apartment.
The artist who painted it told Snopes she did not know the identity of the person who bought it in 2012 and was unaware of any connection to Epstein until a family member told her about news reports in August 2019.
‘Parsing Bill’
This much we know: The painting shown in the photograph published by the Daily Mail is authentic. It is entitled “Parsing Bill” and was painted in 2012 by the Australian-American artist Petrina Ryan-Kleid, while she was obtaining a master of fine arts degree from the New York Academy of Art. As of Aug. 15, prints of the painting were available to purchase from the prominent online art gallery Saatchi. A larger version of the work can be viewed here.
In April 2012, Ryan-Kleid was photographed standing next to the work at the Tribeca Ball, an annual art exhibit run by the New York Academy of Art, and a popular event for New York socialites. Ryan-Kleid told Snopes that’s where an unidentified buyer purchased the original work. In an emailed statement, the artist wrote:
“In 2012, as a grad student at the New York Academy of Art, I painted pictures of Presidents Clinton and Bush as part of my Master’s thesis. When the school put on a fundraiser at the Tribeca Ball that year, they sold my painting to one of the attendees. I had no idea who the buyer was at the time. As with most of my paintings, I had completely lost track of this piece when it was sold seven years ago. So it was a complete surprise to me to learn yesterday that it wound up in Epstein’s home.”
Ryan-Kleid did not recall having sold the painting to Epstein, specifically, and said she first heard about any potential link to the financier from a family member who had read the August 2019 news reports mentioned above. As such, she was not able to offer corroboration for those reports, or for claims that Epstein had once had the painting in his home, or that the photograph published by the Daily Mail was in fact taken at Epstein’s apartment.
Until and unless further corroborating information becomes available, we are therefore issuing a rating of “Unproven.”
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Though Israel’s ambassador in Washington, Ron Dermer, said in July that Israel would not bar any member of Congress, the news site Axios reported last week that Mr. Trump had privately lobbied Mr. Netanyahu to bar Ms. Tlaib and Ms. Omar. An Israeli official said a call came from the Trump administration as late as this week pressing Mr. Netanyahu to do so.
Then, Thursday morning, Mr. Trump said on Twitter that Israel’s admitting the two Democratic congresswomen “would show great weakness.”
The pressure from the White House forced Mr. Netanyahu to choose between ignoring Mr. Trump or angering Democratic leaders in Congress, who urged him to allow the visit to take place despite their differences with Ms. Tlaib and Ms. Omar on policy toward Israel.
When he finally explained his decision, Mr. Netanyahu argued that the trip itinerary was one-sided and that its “sole objective is to strengthen the boycott against us and deny Israel’s legitimacy.”
But in announcing the ban on their official trip under a law that allows Israel to bar those who take a leading role in advancing boycotts of the country, Mr. Deri, the interior minister, also left open the door to admitting Ms. Tlaib for a personal visit. If her request “for humanitarian reasons is submitted for a private meeting with her family, subject to the appropriate obligations, he will consider it,” his office said on Thursday.
Mr. Trump’s intervention, urging another country to act against his domestic critics, was the latest example of his willingness to violate the norms of conduct by an American president.
Danish politicians on Friday poured scorn on the notion of selling Greenland to the United States following reports that President Donald Trump had privately discussed the idea of buying the world’s biggest island with his advisers.
Trump is due to visit Copenhagen in September and the Arctic will be on the agenda during meetings with the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.
“It has to be an April Fool’s joke. Totally out of season,” former prime minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said on Twitter.
The notion of purchasing the territory has been laughed off by some advisers as a joke but was taken more seriously by others in the White House, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters on Thursday.
Talk of a Greenland purchase was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
“If he is truly contemplating this, then this is final proof, that he has gone mad,” foreign affairs spokesman for the Danish People’s Party, Soren Espersen, told broadcaster DR.
Talk of a Greenland purchase by Donald Trump was first reported by the Wall Street Journal
“The thought of Denmark selling 50,000 citizens to the United States is completely ridiculous,” he said.
Greenland, a self-ruling part of Denmark located between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans, is dependant on Danish economic support.
“I am sure a majority in Greenland believes it is better to have a relation to Denmark than the United States, in the long term,” Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, Danish MP from Greenland’s second-largest party Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA), told Reuters.
“My immediate thought is ‘No, thank you’,” she said.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod were not available for comment but officials said they would respond later on Friday. The U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen was also not immediately available for comment.
“Oh dear lord. As someone who loves Greenland, has been there nine times to every corner and loves the people, this is a complete and total catastrophe,” former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, Rufus Gifford, said in on Twitter.
Greenland is gaining attention from global super powers including China, Russia and the United States due to its strategic location and its mineral resources.
In May, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Russia was behaving aggressively in the Arctic and China’s actions there had to be watched closely as well.
A defence treaty between Denmark and the United States dating back to 1951 gives the U.S. military rights over the Thule Air Base in northern Greenland.
Greenland is part of Denmark with self-government over domestic affairs, while Copenhagen handles defence and foreign policy.
There has been no indication that a Greenland purchase will be on the agenda for Trump’s talks with Danish officials.
Martin Lidegaard, senior lawmaker of the Danish Social Liberal Party and a former foreign minister called the idea “a grotesque proposal” which had no basis in reality.
“We are talking about real people and you can’t just sell Greenland like an old colonial power,” he told Reuters.
“But what we can take seriously is that the U.S. stakes and interest in the Arctic is significantly on the rise and they want a much bigger influence,” he added.
In 1917 Denmark sold off the then Danish West Indies islands for $25 million to the United States, which renamed them the United States Virgin Islands.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
President Donald Trump has on multiple occasions discussed trying to buy the country of Greenland, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Trump has with “varying degrees of seriousness” expressed an interest in trying to purchase the icy 811,000 square mile island in the North Atlantic, according to the Journal, citing unnamed sources familiar with the deliberations.
Greenland is an autonomous Danish territory. Trump reportedly told advisers in one exchange last spring he’d heard that Denmark was having financial problems because of the subsidies it pays to Greenland, and wondered if he should buy it. “What do you guys think about?” Trump asked the room, a source told the Journal. “Do you think it would work?”
It’s unclear what the price tag for the country would be, or whether Denmark would consider selling it.
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Officials with the Denmark’s Royal House and the Danish embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to the Journal’s request for comment on the talks.
Trump is scheduled to visit Denmark in September.
The United States has previously tried to buy the strategically located country, which has a population of just over 50,000. President Harry S. Truman offered to purchase it for $100 million in 1946, but Denmark declined the offer, the Journal noted, adding the U.S. had also looked into acquiring the country back in 1867.
Technically a part of North America, Greenland is located between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, between Canada and Europe. The U.S. has an air base there, which is a part of the country’s state-of-the-art ballistic missile early warning system and satellite tracking system.
Sources quoted in other media differed over whether the president was joking or seriously hoping to expand US territory.
How has Greenland reacted?
Officials in Greenland have insisted that the island is not on the market.
“Greenland is rich in valuable resources such as minerals, the purest water and ice, fish stocks, seafood, renewable energy and is a new frontier for adventure tourism. We’re open for business, not for sale,” the foreign ministry said in a statement shared on social media.
Greenland Premier Kim Kielsen repeated the comments in a separate statement. “Greenland is not for sale, but Greenland is open for trade and cooperation with other countries, including the USA,” he said.
“No thanks to Trump buying Greenland!”, she wrote on Twitter, adding that a “better and more equal partnership with Denmark” was the way forward.
Poul Krarup, editor-in-chief of Greenland’s Sermitsiaq newspaper, told the BBC he “couldn’t believe” Mr Trump’s remarks.
“Greenland is an independent area in the Danish kingdom and must be respected as such,” he said.
But he said he thought the chances of Mr Trump’s reported ambitions being realised were unlikely.
“We’d like to cooperate with the US, no doubt about that, but we are independent and we decide who our friends are.”
What about Denmark?
Politicians in Denmark have ridiculed the idea of a possible US acquisition.
“If he is truly contemplating this, then this is final proof, that he has gone mad,” foreign affairs spokesman for the populist Danish People’s Party, Soren Espersen, told national broadcaster DR.
“The thought of Denmark selling 50,000 citizens to the United States is completely ridiculous.”
“Out of all things that are not going to happen, this is the most unlikely. Forget it,” Danish Conservative MP Rasmus Jarlov wrote on Twitter.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who took office earlier this year, has not commented on the reports.
She is set to visit Greenland this weekend and has said she is “very much looking forward” to it.
Mr Trump is scheduled to visit Denmark in September but there is no indication that the possible acquisition of Greenland is on the agenda.
The WSJ reported that it was “unclear” how the US would go about acquiring Greenland if Mr Trump was serious.
Where is Greenland?
Greenland is the largest island in the world (after Australia, which is defined as a continent in its own right). It is an autonomous Danish territory, located between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans.
It has a population of about 56,000 people concentrated around the coastline. Almost 90% are indigenous Greenlandic Inuit people. It has a limited self-government and its own parliament.
More than 80% of the island is covered by an ice cap which is feared to be melting due to global warming.
The ice melt has increased access to the island’s mineral resources.
But it’s also believed that the receding ice may expose toxic nuclear waste that was left at several US military sites during the Cold War.
Why would it be appealing to Trump?
Mr Trump has reportedly taken an interest in Greenland, in part, because of its natural resources, such as coal, zinc, copper and iron ore.
But while Greenland might be rich in minerals, it currently relies on Denmark for two thirds of its budget revenue. It has high rates of suicide, alcoholism and unemployment.
Image copyright AFP
Image caption
Reports differ over whether Mr Trump was serious about trying to purchase Greenland
“The United States has a compelling strategic interest in Greenland, and this should absolutely be on the table,” he tweeted.
Can countries buy territories?
Historically, countries have acquired territory not only through military conquest but also financial deals.
Under the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the US acquired about 827,000 sq miles (2.1m sq km) of land from France for $15m (£12.3m). In 1867, the US reached a deal with Russia to purchase Alaska for $7.2m.
The US later purchased the Danish West Indies in 1917 and renamed them the US Virgin Islands.
However, law professor Joseph Blocher wrote in 2012 that the “market for sovereign territory seems to have dried up”.
“To be sure, there is still an active market for proprietary interests in public land… But borders – sovereign territory, rather than property – do not seem to be for sale.”
The idea of purchasing Greenland was first mooted during the 1860s under the presidency of Andrew Johnson.
In 1867, a report by the US State Department suggested that Greenland’s strategic location, along with its abundance of resources, made it an ideal acquisition.
But no official move was made until 1946, when Harry Truman offered Denmark $100m for the territory.
He had earlier toyed with the idea of swapping land in Alaska for strategic parts of Greenland, according to AP.
Sources quoted in other media differed over whether the president was joking or seriously hoping to expand US territory.
Greenland’s Foreign Minister Ane Lone Bagger dismissed the idea. “We are open for business, but we’re not for sale,” she told Reuters.
The White House has not commented on the reports.
Where is Greenland?
Greenland is the largest island in the world (after Australia, which is defined as a continent in its own right). It is an autonomous Danish territory, located between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans.
It has a population of about 56,000 people concentrated around the coastline. Almost 90% are indigenous Greenlandic Inuit people. It has a limited self-government and its own parliament.
More than 80% of the island is covered by an ice cap. Global warming is feared to be causing the ice cover to melt increasingly quickly but has also increased access to its mineral resources.
Greenland Premier Kim Kielsen has not commented publicly on the reports about Mr Trump.
Why would it be appealing to Trump?
Mr Trump has reportedly taken an interest in Greenland, in part, because of its natural resources, such as coal, zinc, copper and iron ore.
But while Greenland might be rich in minerals, it currently relies on Denmark for two thirds of its budget revenue. It has high rates of suicide, alcoholism and unemployment.
Image copyright AFP
Image caption
Reports differ over whether Mr Trump was serious about trying to purchase Greenland
“The United States has a compelling strategic interest in Greenland, and this should absolutely be on the table,” he tweeted.
Is Greenland on the market?
As Greenland’s foreign minister pointed out: the island is “not for sale”.
Politicians in Denmark have ridiculed the idea of a possible US acquisition.
“If he is truly contemplating this, then this is final proof, that he has gone mad,” foreign affairs spokesman for the populist Danish People’s Party, Soren Espersen, told national broadcaster DR.
“The thought of Denmark selling 50,000 citizens to the United States is completely ridiculous.”
“Out of all things that are not going to happen, this is the most unlikely. Forget it,” Danish Conservative MP Rasmus Jarlov wrote on Twitter.
The WSJ reported that it was “unclear” how the US would go about acquiring Greenland if Mr Trump was serious.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who took office earlier this year, has not commented on the reports.
She is set to visit Greenland this month and has said she is “very much looking forward” to it.
Mr Trump is scheduled to visit Denmark in September but there is no indication that the possible acquisition of Greenland is on the agenda.
Can countries buy territories?
Historically, countries have acquired territory not only through military conquest but also financial deals.
Under the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, the US acquired about 827,000 sq miles (2.1m sq km) of land from France for $15m (£12.3). In 1867, the US reached a deal with Russia to purchase Alaska for $7.2m.
The US later purchased the Danish West Indies in 1917 and renamed them the US Virgin Islands.
However, law professor Joseph Blocher wrote in 2012 that the “market for sovereign territory seems to have dried up”.
“To be sure, there is still an active market for proprietary interests in public land… But borders – sovereign territory, rather than property – do not seem to be for sale.”
Mystery solved. Accused “madame” and “Lady of the House,” Ghislaine Maxwell, has been found after questions surrounding her whereabouts made international headlines. Is she in Europe? Or hiding in a picturesque Massachusetts beach town? Not exactly. Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and alleged co-conspirator in his suspected sex-trafficking operation, was found at an In-N-Out Burger restaurant in Los Angeles.
The New York Post obtained an image of the 57-year-old sitting alone at the burger chain’s location in Universal City on Monday. With her dog in tow, she allegedly told an onlooker, “Well, I guess this is the last time I’ll be eating here!” Maxwell was reading a book called The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives. Ironic, as authorities have been scrambling to track her down. It’s the first time the British socialite has been photographed in public since 2016.
Epstein accuser Jennifer Araoz filed a civil lawsuit Wednesday against Epstein’s estate, alleging she was sexually assaulted at 14 years old. She claimed that “Maxwell participated with and assisted Epstein in maintaining and protecting his sex trafficking ring, ensuring that approximately three girls a day were made available to him.”
Maxwell, the youngest daughter of British media mogul Robert Maxwell, has yet to be charged with any crimes in connection to Epstein. She has previously denied any wrongdoing, including when accuser Virginia Giuffre (née Roberts) claimed she was forced to have sex with Epstein and Maxwell on demand. According to court records unsealed Friday, Giuffre was a teenager when she alleged Maxwell found her working at President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort and asked her to audition for a job as Epstein’s traveling masseuse. The lawsuit was settled in May 2017.
Epstein was found dead in his prison cell in New York City on Saturday. Autopsy results reportedly revealed he had multiple breaks in his neck bones, consistent with suicide by hanging or homicide by strangulation.
The federal government is looking into how Epstein supposedly managed to kill himself after his failed attempt in July. Yahoo News reports the investigation has expanded to include several more federal entities in both Washington and New York.
President Trump has set his sights on America purchasing another ice-covered Arctic territory, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Citing “people familiar with the deliberations,” the Journal reported that Mr. Trump has “repeatedly expressed interest” in purchasing the autonomous territory from Denmark.
While the Journal cautioned that, according to its sources, Mr. Trump has spoken of buying Greenland “with varying degrees of seriousness,” it also has become somewhat of an obsession.
“In meetings, at dinners and in passing conversations, Mr. Trump has asked advisers whether the U.S. can acquire Greenland, listened with interest when they discuss its abundant resources and geopolitical importance, and, according to two of the people, has asked his White House counsel to look into the idea,” the Journal wrote.
His advisers, according to the Journal, have reacted varyingly, some talking up the Danish territory’s resources while others taking it as a passing fancy.
While the United States hasn’t added to its territory for decades, and more or less reached its present size before the end of the 19th century, there is precedent for the U.S. purchasing a massive Arctic wilderness.
In 1867, the U.S. purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, an amount that now would be equivalent to about $125 million.
According to the Journal, Danish and Greenland officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in during the Inter-Korean Summit in April of last year in Panmunjom, South Korea.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in during the Inter-Korean Summit in April of last year in Panmunjom, South Korea.
NurPhoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
North Korea rejected further peace talks with Seoul Friday on the same day it launched at least two projectiles — the sixth such test in a month, according to South Korea’s military.
The statement from North Korea followed a speech on Thursday by South Korean President Moon Jae-in marking the 74th anniversary of Korean independence. In it, Moon vowed reunification of the Korean peninsula by 2045 — a subject that Pyongyang views as provocative.
In response, an unidentified spokesman for the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency that Moon is an “impudent” person “overcome with fright.” Pyongyang’s decision to break off talks, it said, was “completely the fault of South Korea’s actions.”
Meanwhile, South Korea’s military said the North had launched two “unidentified projectiles” that landed in the waters off the peninsula’s east coast after reaching an altitude of about 18 miles and flying a distance of about 142 miles.
Although officials in Seoul did not say what the projectiles were, the apogee and range of them appeared to be consistent with earlier tests identified as North Korea’s KN-23, a hypersonic short-range ballistic missile designed to evade missile defense systems.
Japan’s Defense Ministry said the North Korean projectiles fell short of its territorial waters. The White House said it was aware of the launches and was consulting with Seoul and Tokyo, according to The Associated Press.
Less than a year ago, the Koreas appeared to be on the path to rapprochement.
Following a summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore, there was talk of the North and South forging a lasting peace and putting decades of animosity behind them. In September, Kim and Moon even signed a broad agreement to work toward removing all nuclear weapons from the Korean peninsula.
Kim Jong Un has agreed to allow Nuclear inspections, subject to final negotiations, and to permanently dismantle a test site and launch pad in the presence of international experts. In the meantime there will be no Rocket or Nuclear testing. Hero remains to continue being……..
Since then President Trump, who initially vilified Kim, has consistently praised him, describing the North Korean strongman as a “friend” and joking that the two “fell in love.”
Earlier this month, the president dismissed the North’s spate of missile tests as “very standard” and “very much under control.”
In June, Trump and Kim met at the Demilitarized Zone dividing the Koreas and renewed a pledge to work toward denuclearization.
But the North’s rhetoric and actions have turned sour in recent weeks over joint military exercises held this month between the U.S. and South Korea. Pyongyang has long viewed the annual war games as dress rehearsals for an invasion.
“We have nothing to talk any more with the South Korean authorities nor have any idea to sit with them again,” the North Korean spokesman said Friday.
In the week after earning plaudits for a powerful speech calling on the nation’s better angels to combat racism and hate and fight for the soul of America, former Vice President Joe Biden has stumbled into a danger zone with gaffes and misstatements that could cost him the Democratic nomination. Questions about his fitness to prevail in the grueling next nine months — let alone the 14 till the general election — have given progressives a huge opening, with Sen. Elizabeth Warren surging in popularity and momentum. And that is grim news for the Democratic Party.
As Biden creates doubts about his viability, there is no one else positioned to wrest support from the center of the electorate with a broad enough coalition to win in November 2020. Party elders can foresee a nightmare scenario in which Sen. Bernie Sanders fades, Warren consolidates enough support from his voters to topple Biden, then becomes the nominee and loses the general election.
Last weekend at the Iowa State Fair, when Biden made mistake after misstep and Trump proclaimed that he “isn’t playing with a full deck,” the contrast with Warren was painful. Her crowds were large and excited, his were not. Party operatives were abuzz over her stellar organization in the Hawkeye State where her campaign has spent months “embedding” in local communities and attending even small non-political events to ingratiate themselves among voters from every corner of the critical caucus state. Seasoned operatives say Warren’s organization and penetration in early states could make the difference in close contests once voting begins. While doubted and dismissed by the chattering class when she announced her candidacy, her grind-it-out, non-splashy campaign has finally broken through and captured the energy of hyper-engaged primary voters. Polling shows her surging nationally as well as in Iowa, and in some polls she is in second place.
Meanwhile, Biden’s support has softened. He could surely stabilize again and prevail, just as he did after a terrible debate in June panicked his supporters. Polling has consistently shown voters far prefer someone who can win rather than someone who represents their values. This has sustained Biden’s lead through months of attacks on his past opposition to busing, and support for the Hyde Amendment banning federal funding for abortion, the Iraq War, credit card companies and more. Biden is a known quantity, well liked, experienced as Barack Obama’s vice president and appeals to the middle of the electorate, particularly those in the Rust Belt, which gave Donald Trump the presidency by only 77,744 votes.
“Joe Biden can resonate with the working-class voters who Trump fooled in the last go-round. And that’s what we need: he’s close to the middle. He’s a known quantity. He appeals to middle-class voters,” the Democratic Party chairman of Iowa’s Madison County told the Washington Post last weekend, before warning, however: “There is starting to be a real fear that he cannot hold his own in the debate against Donald Trump.”
The whispers are mostly made off the record and on Twitter, not yet from major players in television or newspaper interviews, but the talk is the same: What if Biden is too outdated, fatigued and forgetful to make it another whole year to the nomination and then to next November, when he will be just shy of 78?
For now, Warren is the Little Engine That Can to Biden’s Big Engine That Perhaps Cannot. While the center of the electorate is reeling from our current turmoil and craves stability, Warren is promising “big structural change” and has eclipsed Bernie to become the beloved progressive in the race.
There’s a lot of talk about how the party should stop wasting resources and energy trying to win over white working-class voters who may have voted for Obama and then Trump, and that it instead needs to go after young voters, women and minorities. These voters, according to the left, will only vote for a progressive candidate who will inspire them. Biden wins with non-white voters and working-class whites, the coalition that has always chosen the party’s nominee. Warren does poorly with both; hers is a base of largely educated white voters. Implicit in the anti-Biden argument is that liberals think he can only attract African Americans who typically vote, not the ones who don’t vote and that they hope to “excite” and turn out next year.
A Biden fall clearly leaves the party far out on the left, without a strong contender for the center. Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper had to drop out. Sen. Michael Bennett, former Rep. John Delaney and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock have yet to qualify for the debate next month (the deadline is Aug. 28). Even Rep. Tim Ryan, a congressman from Youngstown, Ohio who had a great debate in July and has a higher profile than all of them combined, hasn’t met the criteria for the next debate. (Another moderate, Rep. Seth Moulton, has never made it to a debate stage.) Sen. Amy Klobuchar is the only moderate besides Biden who has qualified for the next one, but – sorry, Amy — she isn’t going to be the nominee. And yet dozens of moderate Democrats who gave the party the House majority last year, as well as plenty of Senate candidates, will be running against radical change and an Elizabeth Warren agenda.
Polling, for those Democrats who care to check, shows the country stands strongly against many of the far-out plans Democrats have told us about in the previous two debates. Decriminalizing border crossings, eliminating private insurance, reparations and providing health care coverage for illegal immigrants. Those are no-way issues.
Pile atop all that the many other liabilities the primary has exposed for Democrats. They’re nearly all for tariffs, save for Beto O’Rourke and Biden, yet can’t tell voters how they would restructure trade minus the war. They never approach the all-important subject of China, and offer little reassurance, again save for Biden, that they seek to return the nation to a post-America First leadership role in the world.
The woke are coming for Sleepy Joe. But if non-white voters stick with him through his old-man bumbling, it’s hard to see him losing the nomination. Perhaps African American voters can save the Democratic Party from itself. Biden against Trump is no slam dunk for Trump, no matter how many gaffes Biden piles up. There are likely more “Let Joe Sleep” voters out there than Republicans understand, voters who think Biden’s staff could run the country better than Trump is running it now.
Soon the polls will tell us if Democrats are willing to dump Biden, and how much they really want to win.
A.B. Stoddard is associate editor of RealClearPolitics and a columnist.
President Donald Trump has on multiple occasions discussed trying to buy the country of Greenland, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
Trump has with “varying degrees of seriousness” expressed an interest in trying to purchase the icy 811,000-square-mile island in the North Atlantic, according to the Journal, citing unnamed sources familiar with the deliberations.
Greenland is an autonomous Danish territory. Trump reportedly told advisers in one exchange last spring he’d heard that Denmark was having financial problems because of the subsidies it pays to Greenland, and wondered if he should buy it. “What do you guys think about?” Trump asked the room, a source told the Journal. “Do you think it would work?”
It’s unclear what the price tag for the country would be, or whether Denmark would consider selling it.
Officials with the Denmark’s Royal House and the Danish embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to the Journal’s request for comment on the talks.
Trump is scheduled to visit Denmark in September.
The United States has previously tried to buy the strategically located country, which has a population of just over 50,000. President Harry S. Truman offered to purchase it for $100 million in 1946, but Denmark declined the offer, the Journal noted, adding the U.S. had also looked into acquiring the country back in 1867.
Technically a part of North America, Greenland is between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans, and between Canada and Europe. The U.S. has an airbase there, which is part of the country’s state-of-the-art ballistic missile early warning system and satellite tracking system.
President Trump has been urging aides to explore a way to buy Greenland from Denmark, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
His interest in Greenland began last year. At a meeting that spring in the Oval Office, he joked about buying Greenland for its resources, according to a person who was in attendance.
In the year since, the president has repeatedly returned to the topic, asking aides if they can pursue a purchase of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory that Mr. Trump has been taken with in part because of its natural resources, like coal and uranium.
Privately, Mr. Trump’s advisers are highly skeptical that such a move could ever happen. But instead of telling him they do not think it is possible, the advisers have agreed to investigate the matter, according to the people briefed on the discussions.
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