Trump says ‘I got Greenland’ and Denmark has only had it since 1592

Breaking: the man who couldn’t buy Greenland says he owns it now.

Wednesday night in Clemson, in the middle of an oil boast, Trump dropped it in: “I don’t forget, I got Greenland.” His senators had begged him, he says: “Please don’t do this, please.” His reply: “No, I got it, fellas, okay?” The beef was with Denmark, which by his telling has “only had it from 1592. That’s not that old.” Then he moved on to the White House, which he’d been showing Xi Jinping: “1792.” That one he got right, the cornerstone went down in 1792. He also says he “fixed it,” because it “was like a dump.” One date out of two. For him, that’s a good night.

What he actually got: in September, the U.S., Denmark and Greenland signed an update to a 1951 defense agreement. It lets the Pentagon expand Pituffik Space Base and set up defense areas at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig, with details to be “mutually agreed.” The text recognizes Denmark’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity” and Greenland’s right to self-determination. No territory changes hands. It isn’t even in force yet, because it still needs the Danish and Greenlandic parliaments. So “I got Greenland” means a base-access amendment that’s waiting on two votes in Copenhagen and Nuuk.

As for 1592: Denmark’s own foreign-policy institute dates the modern connection to 1721, when the missionary Hans Egede arrived with the backing of the Dano-Norwegian crown, and notes that Denmark kept Greenland when it split from Norway in 1814. Neither of those is 1592. The number is new, and so is the deed.