A few months ago, waking up to news that the United States’ President Donald Trump had mentioned Denmark normally meant political crisis and rhetoric of potentially armed conflict.
Today, it is a very different story.
On Sunday, Trump spoke at a rally in Michigan ahead of the US midterms, where his attention turned to Scandinavia.
He praised Denmark effusively, before turning his attention to Norway, which he called “a shithouse country”.
Praise for Denmark
During the rally, where Trump also spoke about his admiration for Nicki Minaj’s posterior, he went on a long monologue about Denmark.
He said, “We work with Denmark, good country, good nice country. Anybody that would like to come into our country from Denmark, I’m all for it.”
He went on to compare immigrants from Denmark to immigrants from Somalia: “I must tell you, from Somalia: I’ve had it with them. I’ve had it with them. I much prefer Denmark. Denmark, we’ll take them.”
“We own Greenland”
Perhaps less pleasing for Danes, though, were Trump’s comments during the same speech about the trilateral deal between the US, Denmark, and Greenland.
In his speech, he said, “We own Greenland. We work it with Denmark. We signed a very good agreement with great lawyers. Infinite period of time. No limits. No nothing.”
Of course, the United States does not, in fact, own Greenland. Instead, the agreement gave the US veto rights over some security-related questions on the island as well as setting out a framework for trilateral cooperation.
The agreement specifically reiterated the United States’ recognition of Danish sovereignty over Greenland and previous defence agreements with regard to the island.
“Norway has become a shithouse country”
Trump also reflected on his views on Denmark’s neighbours, specifically on Norway, where the Nobel Peace Prize winner is selected by the Nobel Committee, a politically independent body.
The US president, after noting he would happily welcome Danish immigrants to the country, said, “Norway, I don’t think so because I didn’t get the Nobel Prize even though I ended it. So I don’t want anybody from Norway. I don’t want anything to do with Norway.”
He expanded on his views of the country, saying that “I’m not in love with Norway. Frankly, Norway sucks. Norway has become a shithouse country, actually.”
In response to these comments, the Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide told NRK that “He knows very well that the Nobel committee is independent. We have reminded him of that, in case anyone is wondering, and that is still the case.”
