HBO host John Oliver has laughed off both Donald Trump’s idea to buy Greenland and his relations with the first lady, offering his own explanation as to why the US president wants to lay his hands on the gigantic Arctic island.
“Greenland is icy, distant, and semi-autonomous – it’s exactly Trump’s type”, Oliver said during his weekly show, demonstrating a photo of Melania.
He pointed out that speculation about the alleged idea had risen to such a point that Greenland’s authorities had to state that their island “is not for sale”:
“So, if you had 2 1/2 years in your office pool of ‘when a world leader would have to tell Trump you can’t buy our country’, congratulations, you’re a big winner”, the British-American comedian continued.
He also trashed Trump’s reaction to the Hong Kong protests, as the POTUS had indicated that it is “between Hong Kong and that’s between China, because Hong Kong is a part of China”. Oliver concluded that until his time in office ends, everybody has to put up with a president “that looks at America’s allies and says, ‘Go f*ck yourselves’” and “looks at Greenland and says, ‘$200 and I’ll throw in Don Jr. Final offer”.
His rant prompted a mixed reaction on Twitter. Some suggested that Oliver, who has mercilessly mocked Trump before, went too far this time and slammed the comedian.
John Oliver went too far this timehttps://t.co/qy3ry4TD1O
— RJ Newsflash (@RJNewsflash) August 19, 2019
Who even watches that poncy nerd??
— #SchulzRunWild (@schulzrunwild) August 19, 2019
A shitty thing to say
— P-E-Z (@pez1963) August 19, 2019
Others applauded Oliver’s sharp characterisation of Trump’s presidency and diplomacy.
👏Thank you John Oliver.... True spoken! We need to vote him out.. 💙☑I know I've had enough of that individual.
— PamM (@PamelaMassetti) August 19, 2019
Last week, media reports suggested that Trump was considering buying the world’s largest island, discussing the idea with his aides. In his comments to reporters on Sunday, Trump admitted that he had a general “strategical” interest in the purchase, but did not think of it as a pressing issue.
"It's something we talked about [...] The concept came up and I said certainly, strategically it's interesting and we'd be interested, but we'll talk to (Denmark) a little bit", Trump said.
Trump’s interest in buying Greenland was criticised by Danish authorities, as the country’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called it an “absurd discussion”.
“Greenland is not for sale. Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland. I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously”, she said in an interview with the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq.
