Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman said Wednesday he’s open to Donald Trump’s idea that the U.S. acquire Greenland, telling reporters that it’s “strategically a smart thing.”
“I mean, it’s pretty reasonable, and I think it’s actually strategically a smart thing,” Fetterman said, according to NBC News.
CNN’s Manu Raju added that Fetterman told the press that he would support the acquisition if Denmark did as well.
Fetterman and Trump had a meeting a few days ago at Trump’s Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, where they not only discussed Greenland but other expansionist ideas—such as reacquiring the Panama Canal.
Trump had kind things to say about Fetterman afterward.
“It was a totally fascinating meeting. He’s a fascinating man, and his wife is lovely. They were both up, and I couldn’t be more impressed,” he told the Washington Examiner. “He’s a commonsense person. He’s not liberal or conservative. He’s just a commonsense person, which is beautiful.”
Fetterman had joked prior to the meeting—the first between a Democratic senator and Trump since the election—that Trump would make him “Pope of Greenland.”
House Republicans have already proposed a bill to help along any potential negotiations between Trump and Denmark, whose constitution protects Greenland’s status as an autonomous territory.
Amid all the chatter, Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede said last weekend that he would take a meeting with Trump, but emphasized, “Greenland is for the Greenlandic people. We do not want to be Danish, we do not want to be American. We want to be Greenlandic.”