At a press conference on Tuesday, Trump was asked what kind of pressure he would exert on Greenland and Panama, and he mentioned customs, economic and military means. This caused Danish journalists to bristle. The fact that he questions Denmark’s right to Greenland sounds over the top.

“We need Greenland for our national security. People have been saying that for a long time, even before I stood for election. There are about 45,000 people. People don’t know if Denmark has any legal rights (to the land, ed.). But if they have a right to Greenland, they should give it away, because we need it for our national security.

I’m talking about protecting the free world. You don’t even need binoculars. If you look outside, there are Chinese ships all over the place, there are Russian ships all over the place (around Greenland, ed.). We’re not going to let that happen.

If Denmark wants to come to a conclusion – no one knows if they have ownership rights over Greenland. The people will probably vote in favour of independence or getting into the United States,” says Trump, adding:</p

“But if they did, I would put tariffs on Danish goods at a very high level. We’ll probably try to do it at a high level.”</p

It’s unclear what Trump means by “if they did that”, but it can be assumed he’s talking about what he would do if Denmark retains its right to Greenland.

Trump junior is in Greenland. You might think that Trump would try to defuse the situation, but this time he’s poured petrol on the fire. It’s safe to say that things are boiling in the government offices in Copenhagen. What are they going to do? This is not normal diplomacy.

It should be emphasised that the sound was occasionally poor and it was not easy to hear everything that was said.