"Why isn't that ours?" Trump wanted to swap Greenland for Puerto Rico

In 2019, Donald Trump surprised the world with the idea that the USA could take Greenland from Denmark. It has now become public that he wanted to swap the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico for it.

August 2019: Donald Trump talks to reporters about Greenland. "It's just something we talked about," explains the then US President. "In principle, it belongs to Denmark. We have a good relationship with Denmark. We protect Denmark like we protect large parts of the world. Then the concept came up."

By "concept", Trump is referring to the idea of the USA taking over Greenland. "Strategically it's interesting and we would be interested. But we'll talk to them a little bit [first]. It's not number one on the agenda, I can tell you that."

Denmark's prime minister called the proposal "absurd" at the time, while the regional government countered: "Of course Greenland is not for sale." But if the revelations in a new book about the 45th president's time in office are to be believed, it wasn't about a sale at all: according to the book, Trump had planned a swap with Puerto Rico.

It wasn't political advisors who gave him the idea, but the heir to cosmetics giant Estée Lauder. Trump and Ronald S. Lauder have known each other since college, writes the New York Times. The president tells his advisers: "A friend of mine, a very, very, very successful businessman, thinks we could get Greenland. What do you think?"

A team is then put together to explore the options in the case. At least that's what the authors BB and Susan Glasser claim in their book "The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021", which will be published on September 20.

Staff in the cabinet and the White House are said to have been only moderately impressed by the Greenland idea. Trump, on the other hand, is reportedly selling the whole thing as his own brainwave. "I said, 'Why isn't this ours?" the ex-president recalls in an interview for the book. "Look at the map. I'm a real estate entrepreneur. It's not that different."

Just look at the size of Greenland, Trump said: "It should be part of the United States." However, Lauder had actually put the flea in the president's ear. Security adviser John Bolton nevertheless put his assistant Fiona Hill on the case, even though he thought the move was hopeless. Hill's team then met secretly with the Danish ambassador.

Trump even proposes funds intended for Puerto Rico for the Greenland purchase. Elsewhere, he even brings up an exchange of Greenland for Puerto Rico, where the Republican is not particularly popular. The new revelations are unlikely to change this - on the contrary.