Trump complains Danish prime minister was 'not nice' and 'nasty' over Greenland sale

Danish prime minister had called idea of US buying Greeland 'absurd'

Donald Trump has complained that the prime minister of Denmark was "nasty" and "not nice" when she publicly rejected his unsolicited idea to buy Greenland.

"It was not a nice way of doing it," Mr Trump told reporters on the White House lawn Wednesday. "She could've just said, 'no we'd rather not do it.'"

The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, had forcefully rebuked the idea of the US buying Greenland, after news surfaced that Mr Trump had asked aides about such a purchase. Mr Trump later confirmed publicly that he thought the idea was interesting — and repeatedly shared a meme on Twitter with one of his hotels superimposed near a Greenland village.

"Greenland is not for sale. Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland," Ms Frederiksen told the newspaper Sermitsiaq.

"I strongly hope that is not meant seriously," she said. She then said the conversations were "an absurd discussion."

::Read more: President mocked for past bankruptcies after sharing meme of Trump Tower in Greenland::

After those comments, Mr Trump announced on Twitter that he would skip a planned meeting with Ms Frederiksen, saying he made the choice after she said "she would have no interest in discussing the purchase of Greenland."

In response, Ms Frederiksen said on Wednesday that she received the news he was skipping the meeting with "regret and surprise", and that she "had been looking forward to the visit".

Greenland is an autonomous Danish territory, with limited self-government and its own parliamentary system.

The US has attempted to buy the island previously, but none of those efforts have gotten very far.