POLITICO: Laura Friedman is not entertained
THE BUZZ: COPENHAGEN CONFAB — JD Vance chuckled as Donald Trump predicted the U.S will acquire Greenland “one way or the other.”
Laura Friedman is not so enthused by the president’s fixation.
The California Democrat returned Saturday from Denmark, where she sought to assure Danish officials that members of Congress are prepared to check the president’s stated annexation ambitions. The Danes’ unease, she said, was palpable.
“Everywhere we went, every elected official was incredibly anxious about Donald Trump’s threat to invade and take by force Greenland,” Friedman said in an interview Sunday. “They are taking this very, very seriously.”
The bipartisan delegation she traveled with, led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, also went to Israel and the U.K. But Friedman was alarmed most by the level of anxiety in Denmark and Jordan, she said.
The visit provided Democrats in attendance a chance to provide some assurances of the U.S.’s commitment to its allies, but also to forward a more liberal approach to international relations — even if they don’t have the votes to execute their vision.
“It’s important that we continue to point out that Congress is a co-equal branch of government, that, according to our Constitution, has the power over war, invading other countries and tariffs,” she said, “and that this is an overreach from the executive branch that we — at least our party — does not agree with and will continue to resist.”
The freshman representative’s globe-trotting criticism of Trump was presumably well-received in her deeply Democratic district, where constituents recently shouted at her during a town hall urging her to push back harder against the administration.
She met a similarly agitated audience in Scandinavia.
Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen made clear after meeting Sunday that there’s not enough kroner in the world for the U.S. to take Greenland.
“We will never be a piece of property that can be bought by anyone,” Nielsen defiantly told reporters after the meeting, according to Reuters.
Still available for purchase to Americans from Denmark — barring some cruel form of tariff retaliation — are Smørrebrøds, the mayonnaise-loaded egg sandwiches that Playbook believes the delegation was served based on Friedman’s description of the dish (and a cursory Google search).
“Perfect for being in very cold weather and having to burn calories while you’re fishing,” Friedman estimated. The food, she said diplomatically, was “lovely.”