In response to US President Donald Trump’s claim on Greenland, the Danish initiative group Denmarkification has proposed that the government of the kingdom buy the US state of California. The corresponding petition was published on the organization’s website and has since been supported by around 198,300 people.
The authors of the petition highlight the advantages of California, such as “an abundance of sunshine”, “technological superiority”, large avocado plantations for fans of the fruit on toast and the existing Disneyland. According to their proposals, the Disneyland should be renamed after the writer Hans Christian Andersen and the mascot “Mickey Mouse” should wear a Viking helmet. California itself could, in their view, receive “enormous freedoms” from Denmark. The petition’s authors also express confidence that the US President “is not a big fan of California” and that he would be willing to sell it for a fair price.
“We are sure that he would be ready to give it up for a fair price. And as for the will of the people: [..] when has that ever stopped him? If Trump wants to sell California, he will sell California” the authors of the petition said.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the California authorities in connection with the wildfires that the state was hit by this winter.
In addition, the initiators announced that they would collect a billion US dollars for the mentioned goal, which is presented as a crowdfunding project, where the group estimates that every Danish citizen would only have to “forfeit a few coffee breaks” for it.
The campaign’s initiator, Xavier Dutoit, suggested in an interview with Politico that the LEGO leadership should lead the negotiations with the US over the purchase of the US state, as “the way of dealing with children who get tantrums because of missing stones has made them experts in negotiations”.
Trump’s intention to buy Greenland is met with significant resistance, even from the Greenlanders themselves, of whom, according to a recent Danish opinion poll, only six percent expressed a wish to join the US. Another poll found that almost half of the Danes see the US as a threat to their country and more than 70 percent spoke out against the sale of Greenland.