Fox’s Ari Fleischer Compares Trump to Henry VIII, Who ‘Wanted Scotland the Same Way Trump Wants Greenland’
Fox News contributor Ari Fleischer likened President Donald Trump’s designs on Greenland to King Henry VIII’s invasion of Scotland in the 16th century.
On Wednesday, Trump announced “the concept of a deal” regarding Greenland, which he has demanded Denmark give to the U.S. for “national security” reasons. The president gave no specifics.
A 1951 agreement between the U.S. and Denmark allows the U.S. to increase its military presence on Greenland, but Trump demanded formal possession of the island.
“I think it’s going to be a very good deal for the United States [and] also for them, and we’re going to work together with something to do with the Arctic as a whole, but also Greenland,” the president told CNBC while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday.
Despite a complete lack of specifics, conservative media hailed Trump’s “concept of a deal” (which may or may not be as advanced as his “concepts of a plan” regarding healthcare).
“I think he wants it,” Fleischer said on Wednesday’s Kudlow on Fox Business. “Now, there’s so much to be defined here. And a lot of this is classic Donald Trump negotiating status. He goes in, the bull in the china shop. People think he’s gonna use force. Then, when he takes that off the table, they’re all like, ‘Phew, ok.’ And then he declares a fait accompli, and they look like the bad guys for getting in the way of the fait accompli that he declared today. That’s classic Trump negotiating style. I’m still not sure it’s going to work in this instance, but that’s how he operates.”
“It’s kinda cool, though,” Larry Kudlow replied. “It’s funny. All the Europeans had so many bad things to say about him in the last few days, really nasty, bad things, and then he shows up in Davos and says, ‘I wanna have meetings,’ and they all come rushing in to have meetings with him.”
Fleischer responded by comparing Trump’s Greenland ambitions with England’s invasion of Scotland in the 1540s:
There’s a historical analogy to this. And it was called King Henry VIII’s Rough Wooing of Scotland. He wanted Scotland the same way Donald Trump wants Greenland. He had his son arranged to marry the daughter of the queen of Scotland, Mary Queen of Scots, would’ve married Edward VI. Didn’t work. The Scottish people didn’t want it, so he sent the military. They called it the Rough Wooing of Scotland. I think President Trump and Greenland, a little more woo, a little less rough. And he’ll get there.
Watch above via Fox Business Network.
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