US President Donald Trump has been fond of buying since his days as a realtor. The Guardian reported that the US president is up to his usual pre-presidential antics again, this time planning to buy Greenland from Denmark. The Danes have yet to be asked about his plan, though.
The US president has been interested in buying the northern territory and has tasked his aides in finding out the territory's availability. He even presented the idea before the White House's counsel. The news is that the president asked about the territory "with varying degrees of seriousness."
The news that the US president is intent on making part of the Kingdom of Denmark his property had gone to Twitter. There were people who tried to weigh in the situation by finding a real estate valuation of the property, which is 811,000 sq miles. Others attempted to calculate Greenland's real worth.
While people are amused and amazed, this is not the first time Greenland went up for sale. In 1946, then-US president Harry Truman tried unsuccessfully to buy the territory from Denmark for $100 million. An example of a successful transaction would be the 1917 deal between the US and the Danish West Indies, which then became the US Virgin Islands.
Reports came back with varying ideas. There is one that suggested that the comment was more indicative of the president's "power" to buy a country, Market Watch reported. The report also said that it probably wasn't as serious as people thought it was since the president hasn't floated the idea-yet-at any of his serious campaign rallies.
Greenland, the world's largest island, is a territory which contrasts its name because it is covered mostly by ice and glaciers. It is an autonomously-governed territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. While the kingdom hasn't put the area on the real estate map, its residents have reportedly been sold on the idea of independence.
Greenland also occupies an area in the North Atlantic that the US sees as a strategic spot, given past attempts to buy the area in 1867 and in 1946. With more of the Arctic melting, new shipping lanes and areas up for energy exploration are slowly becoming exposed. Uranium and oil have also been reportedly abundant in the area.
Given its resources and the area it occupies, it could explain the uncanny interest the US president has in it. Trump travels to Denmark next month, but there hasn't been a word whether the Greenland purchase is on the list of his official itinerary on that visit.
