A federal lawmaker wants President Donald Trump to buy Greenland and rename, but his bill to allow the purchase hasn’t attracted any co-sponsors yet.
Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter, R-Ga., introducing a bill authorizing Trump to acquire Greenland and rename it “Red, White, and Blueland.”
“America is back and will soon be bigger than ever with the addition of Red, White, and Blueland,” Carter said. “President Trump has correctly identified the purchase of what is now Greenland as a national security priority, and we will proudly welcome its people to join the freest nation to ever exist when our Negotiator-in-Chief inks this monumental deal.”
Last month, Trump said that U.S. economic security depends on controlling Greenland and the Panama Canal. Trump suggested buying or otherwise taking control of the autonomous territory, which is part of Denmark.
More recently, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Trump’s plan to buy Greenland was “not a joke.”
Greenland, where about 57,000 people live, is a fully autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. Greenland’s economy is dependent on Danish subsidies and fishing.
In 1867, when President Andrew Johnson bought Alaska, he also considered buying Greenland. The U.S. also tried to buy Greenland in 1946. The United States proposed to pay Denmark $100 million in gold to buy Greenland, according to documents in the National Archives. The sale never went through, but the U.S. got the military base it wanted on the island.
Pituffik Space Base, previously known as Thule Air Base, is in Greenland. Pituffik SB is locked in by ice nine months out of the year, but the airfield is open and operated year round. Pituffik exists due to agreements between the U.S. and the Kingdom of Denmark, specifically addressing mutual defense, according to Space Force.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen previously said “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders.”
Trump previously said that he wouldn’t rule out military intervention or economic penalties to get what he wants on both Greenland and the Panama Canal.
