President Trump scrapped his trip to Denmark next month which would have preceded a visit by Barack Obama a couple weeks later.
Obama is scheduled to give a talk in the northern city of Aalborg at the end of September, which is less than a year after his last visit to Denmark.
Trump was set to visit the country on Sept. 2 and 3 as part of a larger tour of Europe, but abruptly announced Tuesday evening that he was postponing a meeting with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
The president explained on Wednesday that it was the way Frederiksen refused to entertain his interest in buying Greenland — she said the idea was “absurd” — that prompted his decision to cancel his state visit to Copenhagen.
“That it was an ‘absurd’ idea was nasty. I thought it was an inappropriate statement,” Trump told reporters. “All she had to do was say, ‘No, we wouldn’t be interested.'”
Obama was also on his mind as Trump revived his criticism of European countries, including Denmark, for not contributing enough to NATO. Denmark “can’t treat the United States the way they treated us under Obama,” he said.
Journalists and pundits have guessed Trump made the decision to cancel his trip to Denmark for a variety of reasons, including Obama’s visit in the same month.
David Frum, a senior editor at The Atlantic, tweeted, “This isn’t about Greenland. Obama scheduled to visit Denmark 9/28. Trump was scared of the likely contrast to his state visit on 9/2-3.”
CNBC’s chief Washington correspondent John Harwood, in offering context for Trump’s criticism of Denmark, noted how its citizens’ opinion of the U.S. has dropped since Trump took office.
in Nordic countries, the decline in US image was steeper
in Denmark approval of US leadership, Obama to Trump, dropped from 55% to 29%
in Finland, from 50% to 21%
in Norway, from 55% to 13%
in Sweden, from 43% to 11%
in Iceland, from 33% to 8%
/2
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) August 21, 2019
Maggie Haberman, the White House correspondent for the New York Times, said that Trump “was already getting disinterested in this trip” before it emerged that he was having conversations about purchasing Greenland.
This is not the first time Trump has been scheduled to make a trip to a foreign country at around the same time Obama was there. For instance, Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in late 2017 weeks after Trump made a visit to Beijing.
More than two years after he left office, Obama remains a counterpoint to Trump on the world stage. He visited Germany in April and reportedly received a warm welcome as he offered contrasting views of key policy issues to those prioritized by his successor.
