How Trump Team Staged Junior's Publicity Trip To Greenland

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How Trump Team Staged Junior's Publicity Trip To Greenland

Donald Trump Jr., center, arrives in Greenland on January 8, 2024

Photo by Emil Stach/Scanpix/REUTERS

President-elect Donald Trump's eldest son, Donald Jr., visited Greenland earlier this week as his father continues to push for the island to become a U.S. territory. But locals were considerably chillier to Donald Jr.'s visit than depicted, according to one official.

In an interview with Politico, Greenland parliament member Pipaluk Lynge pushed back on the president-elect's assertion that his son's delegation was received with open arms. While Trump insisted on Truth Social that "the reception has been great," Lynge said the visit was artificial and structured to insulate Donald Jr. from any negative imagery.

"No journalists were allowed to interview him," Lynge told the outlet. "It was all staged to make it seem like we — the Greenlandic people — were MAGA and love to be a part of the USA."

"People were curious, but some took pictures giving him [the] finger at the airport … Some wrote on Facebook: yankee go home," she added.

Donald Trump Jr. told Politico that any suggestion his visit wasn't received well was "ridiculous," and denied that the Greenland trip was staged. But Lynge countered that her country was well-aware of the United States' history of disrespect toward Indigenous communities and that the island prefers independence from both the U.S. and from Denmark, which currently claims control of Greenland.

“We know how they treat the Inuit in Alaska,” Lynge said. “Make that great before trying to invade us.”

Earlier this week, the Guardian reported that King Frederik II of Denmark changed the country's coat of arms for the first time in 50 years to emphasize Greenland, which is represented on the royal crest by a polar bear. Denmark, which is a key NATO ally, has already indicated that the island is not for sale and would reject any effort by the president-elect to purchase the territory.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

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