A member of Greenland’s Parliament said Donald Trump Jr.’s visit to the island this week was “all staged” to make it look like Greenlanders supported President-elect Trump as he ramps up rhetoric about acquiring the Danish autonomous territory.
“No journalists were allowed to interview him,” Pipaluk Lynge, a member of Parliament from Greenland’s largest party as well as chair of the parliamentary foreign and security policy committee, told Politico. “It was all staged to make it seem like we — the Greenlandic people — were MAGA and love to be a part of the USA.”
She noted that Greenland wants “our own independence and democracy.”
A source familiar with Trump Jr.’s visit said that the President-elect Trump’s son had visited Greenland “to shoot some fun video content for podcasting” and did not plan to meet with government officials while there.
Lynge said many citizens did not seem to give Trump Jr. a warm welcome.
“People were curious, but some took pictures giving him [the] finger at the airport … Some wrote on Facebook: Yankee go home,” she told Politico.
Local media reported the Trump Jr. team passed out “Make America Great Again” caps during his visit.
The Hill has reached out to Trump Jr. for comment. A spokesperson called Lynge’s criticism “ridiculous” in a comment to Politico.
Trump recently revived his ambitions to purchase Greenland in a social media post announcing Ken Howery as his nominee to serve as ambassador to Denmark.
“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” he said in a statement on Dec. 23.
This week, he declined to rule out using economic or military force to take control of Greenland, arguing it’s a national security imperative.
“We know how they treat the Inuit in Alaska,” Lynge said. “Make that great before trying to invade us.”
Lynge was referring to Alaska Natives, who share ancestry with Greenlandic Inuit and have faced a history of discrimination and disparities, including segregation seen in boarding schools run by the U.S. government into the 1960s.
Greenland has historically been a territory controlled by Denmark. However, in 1979, it won home rule and earned semi-independent status in 2009, with the Danish government only controlling defense, security and foreign policy.
Though leaders in Greenland and Denmark have made statements opposing U.S. control, Trump’s calls have put a spotlight on Greenland’s push for full independence.
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