A gaggle of Greenlanders who attended a lunch hosted by Donald Trump Jr carrying Make America Nice Once more caps weren’t devoted supporters of the US president-elect however homeless individuals enticed by the prospect of free meals, it has been claimed.
Trump Jnr visited the Greenlandic capital, Nuuk, final week, shortly after his father declared it was an “absolute necessity” for the US to take management of the semi-autonomous Danish territory.
Throughout his go to, Trump Jr went to the Lodge Hans Egede for lunch with a bunch of individuals carrying Maga hats and put his father on speakerphone. The president-elect instructed them: “We’re going to deal with you properly.”
However Jørgen Bay-Kastrup, the lodge’s chief government, mentioned his a lot of visitors had been actually not Trump supporters however individuals his group had met on the road who came upon solely later who Trump Jr was.
Describing most of the group as homeless individuals, he mentioned: “[Trump Jr] had simply met them on the street and invited them for lunch, or his employees did. However I don’t assume they knew who they had been inviting.
“That in fact was somewhat bit unusual to us as a result of we noticed visitors that we now have by no means seen in our lodge earlier than – and can most likely by no means see once more as a result of it’s out of their economical means.”
The group of about 15 ate a standard Greenlandic lunch together with fish and caribou. They weren’t, Bay-Kastrup added, Trump supporters. “They had been simply, ‘Hey, any person invited us for lunch, let’s go and be part of him’. I believe they came upon later who it was.”
A spokesperson for Trump Jr denied the claims, describing them as “past the pale ridiculous”.
Trump Jr’s go to got here as his father refused to rule out utilizing army or financial motion to accumulate the world’s largest island.
Republicans within the Home of Representatives have revealed a draft invoice known as the “Make Greenland Nice Once more Act” which might enable the Trump administration, which takes workplace on Monday, to carry talks to try to buy Greenland.
Greenland and Denmark have repeatedly mentioned that the territory, whose international and safety coverage are managed by Denmark, a Nato member, is just not on the market. However the Greenlandic prime minister has mentioned his authorities is curious about deepening collaboration with the US and has its “doorways open by way of mining”.
Requested about Trump’s curiosity in Greenland, Bay-Kastrup, who’s Danish, mentioned: “We aren’t a commerce, we’re not one thing on the market. We want to cooperate however we’re not on the market.”
Since Trump Jr’s go to, individuals wearing Maga caps and American flags have reportedly been distributing $100 payments and filming it exterior the grocery store reverse.
One man, Jacob Nordstrøm, was quoted within the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq as saying his 11-year-old son had come residence with a $100 invoice. He instructed Sermitsiaq, which described these handing out the cash as Canadian-American influencers: “It’s actually borderline stunning to search out out that my 11-year-old son has acquired cash from an grownup he doesn’t know.”
Bay-Kastrup, who has witnessed the scenes from his workplace, mentioned that he thought most individuals most likely discovered the stunt amusing, however he had seen one individual take a Maga cap and stamp on it.
In response to the Guardian’s request for remark about Trump Jr’s lunch visitors, Arthur Schwartz, a political operative and buddy of the president-elect’s son, mentioned: “Do you assume Donald Trump Jr was wandering round Greenland inviting homeless individuals… to lunch, or do you realise that the suggestion sounds so past the pale ridiculous that it is best to really feel silly even asking the query?”
He added: “There have been cameras following him round from the second he obtained there to the second he left. Did they miss him recruiting homeless individuals… to his homeless individual… lunch?”
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