--- title: People Jokes About Trump’s Reported Wish to Buy Greenland description: Too bad the internet wasn't around in 1946 when the US first wanted to buy Greenland. canonical: https://time.com/5653167/trump-buy-greenland-memes/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-08-16T15:38:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:56:48.466Z og:title: Everyone Has a Joke About Trump’s Reported Wish To Buy Greenland og:description: Too bad the internet wasn't around in 1946 when the US first wanted to buy Greenland og:url: https://time.com/5653167/trump-buy-greenland-memes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee1158eca7c7d8c4/698a0179656a3fbe1abd8c09/greenland.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Greenland homes og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Everyone Has a Joke About Trump’s Reported Wish To Buy Greenland twitter:description: Too bad the internet wasn't around in 1946 when the US first wanted to buy Greenland twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee1158eca7c7d8c4/698a0179656a3fbe1abd8c09/greenland.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # People Have Jokes About President Trump’s Reported Wish to Buy Greenland > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=76d763fe-64ec-4ec0-b2d2-f970c5079b03&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: President Trump Considered Buying Greenland for the U.S., Sources Say [Watch (HLS stream): President Trump Considered Buying Greenland for the U.S., Sources Say](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/jTbrmtph.m3u8) (1:17)  _Published 2019-08-16. Aiming to put his mark on the world map, President Donald Trump has talked to aides and allies about buying Greenland for the U.S._ by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Aug 16, 2019 3:38 PM UTC Aiming to put his mark on the world map, President Donald Trump has talked to aides and allies about buying Greenland for the U.S. by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Aug 16, 2019 3:38 PM UTC Headlines that President Donald Trump is [reportedly interested](https://time.com/5653758/donald-trump-buy-greenland/) in buying [Greenland](https://time.com/5339726/massive-iceberg-village-greenland/), despite the fact that the island is not for sale became a flash point for online fun. While the notion of Trump wanting to buy Greenland sounded ludicrous when it was first [reported](https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-eyes-a-new-real-estate-purchase-greenland-11565904223) by the Wall Street _Journal_, but [as _TIME_ reported](https://time.com/5653894/trump-greenland-history/), this is not the first time the U.S. has floated the idea of purchasing the island. The first offer to buy the strategically-placed bit of land took place in 1946, well before the existence of the internet and long before Twitter users could hear about the plan and make fun of it online. That is not the case today. As soon as Twitter users heard that Trump had discussed purchasing Greenland enough times to make lawmakers wonder about the President’s seriousness, they started posting jokes about the possible plan. Here are just a few of the many, many people on Twitter poking fun at the president’s reported desire to buy Greenland. > [](https://twitter.com/DLind/status/1162151096267235329) > [](https://twitter.com/exjon/status/1162138788119711745) > [](https://twitter.com/YAppelbaum/status/1162123948391317504) > [](https://twitter.com/BetteMidler/status/1162181686584590338) > [](https://twitter.com/ReelQuinn/status/1162205608407269376) > [](https://twitter.com/DartDClark/status/1162151615585038336) > [](https://twitter.com/SassyGirlBoss/status/1162171184869466115) > [](https://twitter.com/bigsadboii/status/1162152572704251904) > [](https://twitter.com/jasonhsv/status/1162140975747272706) > [](https://twitter.com/andylassner/status/1162356178074005505) > [](https://twitter.com/Ida%5FRose%5FFog/status/1162261122721783813) > [](https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1162261871014993925) > [](https://twitter.com/maddow/status/1162361314263674882) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5653167/trump-buy-greenland-memes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5653167/trump-buy-greenland-memes/"},"headline":"People Have Jokes About President Trump’s Reported Wish to Buy Greenland","datePublished":"2019-08-16T15:38:11.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-13T08:56:48.466Z","description":"Too bad Twitter wasn't around in 1946 when the US first wanted to buy Greenland","url":"https://time.com/5653167/trump-buy-greenland-memes/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics","viral","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee1158eca7c7d8c4/698a0179656a3fbe1abd8c09/greenland.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee1158eca7c7d8c4/698a0179656a3fbe1abd8c09/greenland.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Greenland homes","caption":"Greenland homes","creditText":"oversnap—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5653167/trump-buy-greenland-memes/","name":"People Have Jokes About President Trump’s Reported Wish to Buy Greenland"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"President Trump Considered Buying Greenland for the U.S., Sources Say","description":"Aiming to put his mark on the world map, President Donald Trump has talked to aides and allies about buying Greenland for the U.S.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/jTbrmtph/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-08-16T04:11:29.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/jTbrmtph.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5653167/trump-buy-greenland-memes/","duration":"PT1M17S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5653167/trump-buy-greenland-memes/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```