A House Republican unveiled a bill that not only authorizes President Donald Trump to make a deal for the acquisition of Greenland for the United States but also renames the island “Red, White, and Blueland” in a nod to the American flag.
Trump floated the idea of the U.S. taking control of Greenland, a territory controlled by Denmark, for national security purposes in December. In response, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has insisted Greenland is not for sale, but she did express openness to the U.S. being able to expand its military presence on the island.
Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-GA) introduced legislation on Tuesday that would authorize the president to negotiate with Denmark to “purchase or otherwise acquire” Greenland. The legislation also includes a section requiring the renaming of Greenland as “Red, White, and Blueland” on maps and other records of the United States within six months of its enactment.
“America is back and will soon be bigger than ever with the addition of Red, White, and Blueland,” Carter said in a statement. “President Trump has correctly identified the purchase of what is now Greenland as a national security priority, and we will proudly welcome its people to join the freest nation to ever exist when our Negotiator-in-Chief inks this monumental deal.”
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) previously offered a bill called the “Make Greenland Great Again Act” that would authorize the president to pursue negotiations with the Kingdom of Denmark to secure the acquisition of Greenland. The bill, which has more than a dozen Republican co-sponsors, was referred to the House Foreign Affairs Committee but otherwise has not progressed any further.
House Republicans have put forward bills that would give life to some of Trump’s other foreign policy ambitions, such as renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and taking back the Panama Canal, that have also not gone very far in Congress to date.
During the first day of his second term, Trump signed an order directing the Interior Secretary to “take all appropriate actions” to rename the U.S. Continental Shelf area as the Gulf of America. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has since announced that his department had implemented the president’s instructions. And, as he flew on Air Force One over the gulf to the Super Bowl on Sunday, Trump proclaimed it to be “Gulf of America Day.”
