Trump asks why the US takes people from ‘shithouse countries’ and not Denmark, which he says ‘gave us Greenland’

At a rally in Perry, Georgia, on Saturday night, Trump told the crowd that Sen. Jon Ossoff “personally sponsored a bill to bring armies of migrants from terror-infested countries like Libya, Yemen, Haiti, Somalia.” That’s his description of the bill. Then he went for the greatest hit, reminding the crowd of his name for those places: “Shithouse countries. Remember the heat I took?”

He had more to say about Somalia. He claimed “98 percent” of Somalis here “don’t work,” and that they “don’t really have to work because they steal so much. They all have a Mercedes Benz.” He called them “low IQ,” said “they live better than you do,” and then had a rare moment of self-doubt: “Maybe they’re not as low as we think.”

Then came the line he says he used on Democratic senators: “why do we always have to take people from shithouse countries? Why can’t we take people from, like, well, Norway, Sweden? Why not Denmark?” At the word Denmark, he drifted off into real estate. “You know, by the way, Denmark was so great. They gave us Greenland.” A bit later: “Denmark gave us. We signed an agreement.” It will, he said, “go down as the greatest real estate deal in history, probably after Venezuela.” Then a quiz for the crowd: “What do you take, Venezuela or Greenland? Both. We got them both.”

Denmark did not give anyone Greenland. The agreement Trump signed with Denmark and Greenland at the UN on 22 September is a defence agreement that amends and supplements the 1951 US–Denmark defence agreement on Greenland, per the White House text. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s office says it “acknowledges and respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark and the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination.” It also says the deal doesn’t take effect until it clears the national parliamentary procedures. The greatest real estate deal in history doesn’t come with a deed.