Published 07:00 IST, August 20th 2020
'Trump wanted to exchange Puerto Rico for Greenland': Ex-US Homeland Security official
Miles Taylor who served as chief of staff to former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, said President Trump wanted to trade Puerto for Greenland.
- World News
- 2 min read
Miles Taylor who served as chief of staff to former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, said in an interview on Wednesday that United States President Donald Trump wanted to exchange Puerto Rico for Greenland.
"[Trump] told us, not only did he want to purchase Greenland, he actually said he wanted to see if we could sell Puerto Rico - could we swap Puerto Rico for Greenland," Taylor said.
Trump thought about selling the US Governed island in exchange for the Danish-owned island of Greenland due to the perceived subpar financial and physical state of the US territory, according to Taylor.
Trump cancelled Denmark visit amid spat over Greenland
Trump had expressed interest in buying Greenland from Denmark, but dropped the idea and cancelled his visit to the country after its Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen rejected the idea of exchange.
Elaine Duke, the former acting secretary of homeland security told The New York Times in July that devastating hurricane in 2017 had caused significant damage to Puerto Rico which made Trump discuss the idea in a closed-door meeting about selling the island. However, that subject was never touched upon after the meeting.
Peurto is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the northeast Caribbean Sea. As it is not a state, Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the U.S. Congress. The residents of Puerto Rico do not vote in the US Presidential election and don't even pay federal income tax.
Although a referendum will be non-binding and will need approval from Congress, the island will hold a referendum in November on whether it should become a US state. It will ask one question: Should Puerto Rico be immediately admitted as a US state? So far, Congress has never acted on the island's previous referendums, the last of which was organized in 2017.
(With ANI inputs)
Updated 07:00 IST, August 20th 2020