The US president’s increasingly belligerent statements about the Danish territory have met with apprehension, outrage, and now, humour.
A lighthearted Danish petition to buy the state of California and “bring hygge to Hollywood” comes in response to President Donald Trump’s talk about taking control of Greenland from Denmark.
“Have you ever looked at a map and thought, ‘You know what Denmark needs? More sunshine, palm trees, and roller skates,’” the petition asks. “Well, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make that dream a reality.”
As of midmorning Wednesday, the petition’s website had gathered over 200,000 signatures, with a goal of reaching 500,000. It aims to raise “$1 trillion (give or take a few billion). That’s just 200,000 kroner from every Dane.”
“It is in the national interest to promote the extraordinary heritage of our Nation, so California will become New Denmark. Los Angeles? More like Løs Ångeles,” the petition states.
Løs Ångeles may be a joke, but another very Danish city in Southern California is real. Solvang, known as “the Danish capital of America”, was founded by three immigrants from Denmark in 1911.
The city is popular with tourists, who come in droves to sample its aebleskiver pastries, marvel at Scandinavian windmills, wander a main street called “Copenhagen Drive” and enjoy a Hans Christian Andersen Museum to honour the Danish fairytale author. Danish royals have visited several times over the decades.
‘Mickey Mouse in a Viking helmet? Yes please’
In 2019, Trump backed out of a trip to Denmark, complaining that Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had made a “nasty” statement when she rejected his proposal of buying Greenland as an absurdity.
Trump, now in his second term, is doubling down. Before taking office in January, Trump said he would not rule out seizing Greenland via military force, claiming again that the territory is “vital” to US national security.
Frederiksen and Múte B Egede, Greenland’s prime minister, are pushing back.
“Greenland is for the Greenlandic people,” Egede said at a news conference alongside last month Frederiksen in Copenhagen. “We do not want to be Danish, we do not want to be American. We want to be Greenlandic.”
The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, visited Greenland last month, telling citizens the Trump administration would treat them well. It later emerged that several of the ostensibly pro-Trump Greenlanders who appeared alongside him were homeless people who had been paid to take part in the event.
It is in this climate that Denmarkification has decided to channel Trump’s previous career as a real estate developer. The petition organisers already have big plans for Disneyland in Southern California.
“We’ll rename it Hans Christian Andersenland,” the petition states. “Mickey Mouse in a Viking helmet? Yes, please.”
They also offer a disclaimer, however: “This campaign is 100% real … in our dreams.”
