We must remember the outcry, as often, which had accompanied the chivalrous outing of Donald Trump. On August 21, 2019, the one who was comfortably installed in the Oval Office, said he wanted to buy the island of Greenland after revelations from the “Wall Street Journal”. “It’s a big real estate transaction that would be strategically interesting,” he justifies himself to the press. The announcement was immediately greeted with general hilarity in the United States. The famous talk shows of first part of the evening, where news and entertainment mingle, make fun of the latest antics of the billionaire. We wonder if the inspiration of Donald Trump does not come straight from the scenario of an episode of the comedy series, “South Park”.
At that time, the journalists and presenters were far from suspecting that it was a project thought out and studied by the Trump administration, putting the presidential exit on the account of the countless schemes perpetuated by the real estate developer to To divert attention. The book of the two American journalists, Peter Baker and Susan Glasser, entitled “The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-202” (to be published on September 20), reveals that the plan was the subject of consultations and debates for several weeks in the heart of the White House, some advisers maintaining that it would be a formidable economic operation. Go back.
Special team
The idea came from Ronald S. Lauder, a New York cosmetics heir who met Donald Trump in college. “A friend of mine, a very, very experienced businessman, thinks we can get Greenland,” Trump immediately tells his national security adviser. What do you think? A special team is set up to assess the prospects, which resulted in a memo outlining various options, including a lease proposal similar to a New York real estate transaction. The incongruity of the prospect of buying an autonomous territory located between the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans belonging to Denmark does not seem to frighten certain strategic advisers of the White House.
They see this as an opportunity to acquire a unique strategic position from a geopolitical and military point of view. The abundant natural resources of the island support many of them. After a first meeting in the Oval Office during which the acquisition plan is clearly exposed, other executives of the institution raise their voices. They then gave themselves instructions to prevent any leakage of the work begun for fear of provoking a diplomatic incident.
Faced with the insistence of Donald Trump, the White House lawyer will even be called upon. The approach so baffled John Kelly, his second chief of staff, that he secretly bought a copy of a bestselling book questioning Trump’s sanity. Kelly then sees in this publication of psychiatrists the illustration that Donald Trump is a pathological liar whose inflated ego is in fact the sign of a deeply anxious person.
Visit canceled
A few days after his confusing announcement, Donald Trump is also forced to cancel his planned visit to the Scandinavian kingdom. “Denmark is a very special country with amazing people but given Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s comments that she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland, I will postpone our scheduled meeting for two weeks. at another time,” the US president said at the time.
If the sale was theoretically possible, the White House plan clashed with its counterpart. Greenlandic Prime Minister Kim Nielsen humorously retorted: “Explorer Leif the Lucky, son of Erik the Red, grew up in Greenland. He was the first European to discover America. the Greenlandic nation takes over the United States.” Donald Trump had lost some of his credibility on the international scene.