DONALD Trump should be allowed to buy Greenland – and the world needs a transfer window for countries, says Jeremy Clarkson.
The former Top Gear host and Sun columnist backed the incoming US President’s controversial foreign policy goals as “pretty strong”.
Since billionaire businessman Trump won the election in November last year, he has shown interest in purchasing Greenland and the Panama Canal, in addition to potentially annexing Canada.
Last week, Danish PM Mette Frederiksen responded to Trump’s suggestions of taking control of Greenland – a crucial location along Arctic trade routes – from Denmark.
But Clarkson said “the world’s borders have never really been set in stone” – comparing Trump’s ambitions to those of the Roman Empire.
In a piece for the Sunday Times, the 64-year-old star of Clarkson’s Farm mentioned how Rome’s influence began with a “modest campsite on the banks of the Tiber” and eventually extended worldwide without objection.
He went on to say by the middle of the 20th century “we did think we had it all worked out” but now “people all over the globe aren’t happy at all”.
Clarkson pointed to examples like Russia invading Ukraine, as well China’s claims on the Spratly Islands, and Morocco’s issues with the western Sahara.
“We look today at a political map of the world and we think it’s all stable and permanent. But it isn’t,” he says.
“So why are we surprised that Donald Trump thinks that after he’s made Canada the 51st state, Greenland should be the 52nd?”
Clarkson said the Danes might make “petulant noises” about losing Greenland now, but it’s “costing £340million a year in subsidies” and realistically they’d probably be “glad to see the back of it”.
It comes after Denmark demanded talks with Trump after the incoming US leader failed to rule out military intervention in his plot to take the autonomous territory.
The president-elect’s son Don Jr stirred the pot further after he touched down on the Danish territory and allegedly bribed local homeless people to pose as MAGA fans.
Trump had sent shockwaves through the EU after he floated plans to seize Greenland to protect global “national security and freedom”.
PM Frederiksen said: “There is a lot of support among the people of Greenland that Greenland is not for sale and will not be in the future either.”
She then revealed on Thursday that she had reached out to Trump and offered talks over the shock move, but added the pair had not spoken yet.
She said that Trump’s landgrab remarks were being taken seriously but added “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders.”
Despite the Dane’s wish for talks, she hammered down her belief that Trump would not attempt to take the Arctic island by force.
She said: “We have no reason to believe that would happen.”
Ahead of his son’s controversial visit, Trump wrote on social media: “I am hearing that the people of Greenland are ‘MAGA’.
“My son, Don Jr, and various representatives, will be traveling there to visit some of the most magnificent areas and sights.
“Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our Nation.
“We will protect it, and cherish it, from a very vicious outside World. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!”
Greenland was previously occupied by the US during World War Two, while Denmark was occupied by the Nazis.
Speaking at a press briefing last Tuesday, Trump said he could not assure reporters that military or economic coercion would not be used to try and gain control of both Greenland and the Panama Canal.
“I can say this, we need them for economic security,” he said.
Greenland is the world’s largest island, a founding member of NATO and boasts rich deposits of various natural resources.
It straddles the Arctic circle between the US, Russia and Europe – and the US has eyed it for more than 150 years.
Trump added: “I’ve been told that for a long time, long before I even ran.
“People really don’t even know that Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security.”
Meanwhile, the Panama Canal is a waterway connecting the Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean.
It acts as a shortcut route, saving time and costs for transporting goods, according to the Embassy of Panama website.
Trump could take Greenland in 24 HOURS in ‘world’s shortest war’ against tiny force of 17,000 troops, experts reveal
By Patrick Harrington
DONALD Trump could storm Greenland and claim it within 24 hours in the “world’s shortest war”, analysts claim.
Far from being a useless block of ice, Greenland is a vital strategic asset bursting with natural resources and sits bang in the middle of the main Arctic trade routes.
It’s become the epicentre of a struggle between superpowers – with Russia and China both ramping up efforts to take control of the region.
And Danish PM Mette Frederiksen has demanded crunch talks with Trump after his latest remarks, insisting: “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders.”
But if Trump did invade, America’s military might means a war would be over in just 24 hours, politics professor Anthony Glees told The Sun.
Glees said Trump will be surrounded by “people who think he is great” – and it means he will be able to go ahead with any wild ideas he has.
Glees said: “In other words, we have to take him seriously.
“And if Trump wanted to take Greenland by force, he could do it in 24 hours.”
There are only 17,000 active Danish troops, and most of the country’s heavy military equipment has been donated to Ukraine – so their defences are even thinner than usual.
Some Danish coastguards man south-eastern Greenland, but the Danish press has reported that software needed to shoot at targets was never bought – rendering the patrols toothless.
The Danish Ministry of Defence states that the tasks of the forces around Greenland are “primarily surveillance of the territorial waters”.
Denmark’s best hope of defending against the Americans would be to prove that the EU or Nato had a legal requirement to step in and protect Greenland.
Ulrik Pram Gad, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, told Politico that “there is no defensive capacity in Greenland”.
And it means it would be “the shortest war in the world”.
The conflict would present an “unchartered” situation after the US entered a pact with Denmark in 1951 to defend Greenland against any attack.
The US has a nuclear base on the island that is constantly manned by troops.
Kristian Søby Kristensen, a military researcher at the University of Copenhagen, said: “Who would the Americans be fighting? Their own military?”
Glees said it was likely that, in the event of a US invasion, “there would be no military response to it, because it is unthinkable that any Nato member would attack the US”.
