Trump praises Danish PM he called ‘nasty’ over Greenland row

Trump on Friday he appeared to reverse course, calling her "a wonderful woman."

August 24, 2019 10:23 am | Updated November 28, 2021 10:19 am IST - Washington (United States):

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen makes a comment about US President's cancellation of his scheduled State Visit, in front of the State Department in Copenhagen, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2019. U.S. President Trump announced his decision to postpone a visit to Denmark by tweet on Tuesday Aug. 20, 2019, after Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen dismissed the notion of selling Greenland to the U.S. as "an absurd discussion."

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen makes a comment about US President's cancellation of his scheduled State Visit, in front of the State Department in Copenhagen, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2019. U.S. President Trump announced his decision to postpone a visit to Denmark by tweet on Tuesday Aug. 20, 2019, after Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen dismissed the notion of selling Greenland to the U.S. as "an absurd discussion."

President Donald Trump heaped praise on Denmark's prime minister Friday, two days after he cancelled his state visit to the country and slammed her for dismissing his idea of buying Greenland as absurd.

The U.S. leader said he got a call from Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who he had previously called "nasty" when she rejected his idea of buying Greenland in the latest spat involving Mr. Trump and a traditional U.S. ally.

But on Friday he appeared to reverse course, calling her "a wonderful woman."

 

"We had a great conversation," Mr. Trump told reporters as he prepared to leave for the G7 summit in France.

"We have a very good relationship with Denmark, and we agreed to speak later. But she was very nice. She put a call in, and I appreciated it very much," Mr. Trump said.

The row had earlier prompted Mr. Trump to call off plans to visit Copenhagen next month after Ms. Frederiksen said Greenland, an autonomous region of Denmark, was not for sale.

 

Ms. Frederiksen said she was both annoyed and surprised that Mr. Trump cancelled the visit.

But, she added, "Denmark and the US are not in crisis, the U.S. is one of our closest allies" and the invitation to visit was still open.

In his remarks late Friday Mr. Trump said nothing about resurrecting the trip.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.