Danish citizens have launched a petition to purchase America’s most populous and prosperous state, California, in response to Donald Trump’s efforts to acquire Greenland.
The president has recently escalated calls to purchase the autonomous Danish territory for “national security” purposes, despite both Denmark and Greenland’s Prime Ministers insisting the Arctic island is not for sale.
Pledging to “Make California Great Again,” Danes have launched a retaliatory campaign seeking the “Denmarkification” of the world’s fifth-largest economy.
The tongue-in-cheek petition, which is apparently seeking to crowdfund $1 trillion to buy the Golden State, claims it has garnered just shy of 200,000 signatures by Tuesday morning.
It comes after California’s Secretary of State Shirley Webster permitted a campaign to begin collecting signatures to vote to secede from the U.S. and become an independent country on the 2028 election ballot.
The Independent has contacted organizers of the Demarkification campaign for confirmation of the signatures gathered.
California would become “New Denmark,” according to the campaign’s website, while its world-famous theme park Disneyland would be rebranded as “Hans Christian Andersenland”.
Other benefits of the Scandinavian nation purchasing the state include “tech dominance” and “avocado on toast forever,” according to the petition.
“Have you ever looked at a map and thought, ‘You know what Denmark needs? More sunshine, palm trees, and roller skates,’” the website reads. “Well, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make that dream a reality.”
Executives from LEGO and the cast of the political drama Borgen would be pulled in to negotiate the deal, while a lifetime supply of Danish pastries would be on the table to sweeten the deal.
A disclaimer at the bottom of the page reads: “This campaign is 100% real… in our dreams”.
Trump and his allies have repeated calls for Greenland to join the U.S. to enhance national security.
At the start of the new year, the president once pointed to “economic security” as a reason for the takeover, with the island’s untapped mineral resources in great demand.
Greenland’s 800,000 square miles “contains approximately 31,400 million barrels oil equivalent of oil” and around 148 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to an assessment by the U.S. Geological Survey.
According to estimates from The Washington Post, because of its natural resources and industries, buying the island could cost as much as $1.7 trillion.
Last month, the president stated that the majority of Greenland’s 56,000 inhabitants “want” to become Americans.
However, a mere six percent of Greenlanders are hoping their nation will join the U.S., according to a poll commissioned by Danish newspaper of record, Berlingske, and the Greenlandic daily Sermitsiaq. The survey suggests that 85 percent of those residing in the Danish territory don’t want to become a part of the U.S.
Six percent were in favor of joining and nine percent had been left undecided, according to the poll.
It comes as a GOP congressman floated new legislation in an attempt to bolster Donald Trump’s efforts to take over Greenland, while also giving the autonomous Danish territory a new name.
Georgia Representative Buddy Carter said he wants Greeland to be called “Red, White, and Blueland” as he unveiled a new bill of the same name.
“America is back and will soon be bigger than ever with the addition of Red, White, and Blueland,” said in a statement to the New York Post.
“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.”
