President Donald Trump has been joking recently about trading Puerto Rico for Greenland. But now it's Puerto Ricans who are the ones laughing — and many say they'd be happy with the trade.
Some called themselves the "Caribbean Vikings" and others shared all the benefits they would have if they stopped being a U.S. territory and became an autonomous Danish territory.
"I don't know about you, but I have no problem with being sold to Denmark," Gabriel René, a digital ad executive, tweeted after The New York Times reported on Trump's remark. A former official told New York Times reporters he heard Trump joke in a meeting last year about trading Puerto Rico for Greenland in order to get rid of the U.S. territory.
On social media, Puerto Ricans took it in stride.
"Denmark is the country with the best education in the world," a man wrote on Twitter.
"Honestly being part of Denmark may be the best thing to ever happen to us," Dartina Marie Pérez, who lives in Puerto Rico, tweeted.
A Puerto Rican podcaster, known as Nieto, shared what some labeled as the Danish "Starter Kit."
"I have been preparing for when Trump exchanges us for Greenland and we are a colony of Denmark," Nieto tweeted in Spanish, sharing photos of "Danish Delights" butter cookies, the TV show "Vikings" and Danish beer bottles.
Others included a Danish-to-Spanish dictionary on their "Starter Kits."
"We're ready," one Twitter user wrote, alongside a picture of a "Conversational Danish" reading book.
Under the hashtags #DenmarkPR and #DinamarcaPR, meaning Denmark in Spanish, Puerto Ricans started claiming the Danish royal family and shared some of the perks they would get by being a Danish territory.
Regina C. Ortiz tweeted in Spanish, "[Here's] OUR Queen: Margrethe II of Denmark," along with a picture of her.
"We will finally have representation in the Europe [League] and possibly in the World Cup," a Twitter user wrote in Spanish, sharing a photo of the Danish soccer team.
While countless jokes were unleashed after reports surfaced that Trump "has on multiple occasions discussed trying to buy the country of Greenland," a serious diplomatic rupture occurred between the United States and one of its longtime allies.
Trump was scheduled to go to Denmark for an official trip but he canceled it after the country's prime minister said that Greenland was not for sale and labeled his remarks as “absurd.”
The reactions from Puerto Ricans come after Trump voiced, on multiple occasions, his opposition to fund hurricane recovery efforts in Puerto Rico and considered diverting hurricane relief funds to build a border wall.
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