Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. (AP Picture/Mary Altaffer)
(The Hill) — Former President Donald Trump recommended to his aides whereas he was president that the US may commerce Puerto Rico to Denmark for Greenland, based on a brand new ebook from two New York reporters.
New York Instances journalist Peter Baker and The New Yorker journal journalist Susan Glasser revealed of their ebook, “The Divider: Trump within the White Home, 2017-2021,” that Trump’s plan to purchase Greenland got here from Ronald Lauder, a New York cosmetics inheritor who had identified Trump since faculty.
Baker wrote in an article Wednesday that Lauder mentioned the concept of buying Greenland with Trump in the course of the early days of his presidency, and Lauder provided to function a again channel to barter with Denmark, which owns Greenland.
Reviews in 2019 signaled Trump’s curiosity in buying Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, and that a few of his advisers supported it whereas others dismissed it as a fascination.
John Bolton, who was serving as nationwide safety adviser on the time, directed his aide Fiona Hill to kind a crew to think about concepts to amass Greenland, Baker reported. Bolton believed rising U.S. presence in Greenland made sense to oppose Chinese language affect within the Arctic area, however shopping for it outright was not possible.
Trump continued to press for buying the island, the world’s largest, suggesting that the U.S. take federal cash away from Puerto Rico to purchase Greenland or commerce the 2 islands.
Trump mentioned in an interview for the ebook that the concept to purchase Greenland was his personal thought.
“I like maps. And I at all times mentioned: ‘Take a look at the dimensions of this. It’s huge. That ought to be a part of the US,” Trump reportedly mentioned.
Denmark’s prime minister rejected the concept of promoting Greenland to the U.S., calling it “absurd.”
The Trump administration confronted sturdy criticism for its response after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, with native officers slamming the White Home on the time for being sluggish to reply.
A former Division of Homeland Safety official mentioned in 2020 that Trump referred to as Puerto Rico “soiled” and requested to commerce it for Greenland after officers visited the island following the hurricane.
Trump didn’t instantly return a request from The Hill for remark.
