A fundraising group dedicated to electing Republicans to Congress is selling a T-shirt that includes Greenland on a map of the US, just after the president cancelled a trip to Denmark in protest at the prime minister saying he could not buy the country.
Casey Tolan, a reporter based in California, spotted the T-shirt on a fundraising message from the National Republican Congressional Committee, which asked donors to "Support President Trump and his efforts to help America grow!" It appears to have since been removed.
The Republican party appears to be embracing Donald Trump’s surprise attempt to buy Greenland, which Denmark has said is not for sale. Senator Tom Cotton, the highly vocal Trump supporter from Arkansas, told an audience on Wednesday that the idea to buy the country was actually his.
“Obviously, the right decision for this country,” Mr Cotton said when asked about the president’s tweets about Greenland at the Talk Business & Politics Power Lunch in Little Rock.
“You’re joking, but I can reveal to you that several months ago, I met with the Danish ambassador and I proposed that they sell Greenland to us.”
Mr Cotton also said that China had tried to build military bases in Greenland in 2018, but had been denied. He said that the idea to buy the country wasn’t just his own, adding: “He’s heard that from me and from some other people as well.”
He also maintained that the idea, which has been ridiculed internationally, was a good one, saying that “anyone who can’t see that is blinded by Trump derangement”.
Still, the GOP remains in the very, very small minority on seeing the positive, or even possible, factors of Donald Trump purchasing Greenland.
In an interview on Wednesday, Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister of Denmark, told reporters: “Greenland belongs to Greenland," adding, with regards to the president’s pipe dream: “I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously.”
"Thankfully, the time where you buy and sell other countries and populations is over,” she continued. “Let’s leave it there.”
