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More than 200,000 Danish nationals have signed a satirical online petition to buy California from the United States and renamed the state “New Denmark”.
The jab comes after US President Donald Trump renewed his interest to acquire Greenland – an autonomous territory of Denmark – to be part of the US since his re-election in November 2024.
The petition, with the tagline Make California Great Again, pledges to introduce Danish values such as hygge – a Danish concept of cosiness – in Hollywood, bicycle lanes in Beverly Hills and organic smorrebrod (open-faced sandwiches) at every street corner.
It however, cautioned that rule of law, universal healthcare and fact-based politics “might apply”.
“Have you ever looked at a map and thought, ‘You know what Denmark needs? More sunshine, palm trees, and roller skates.’ Well, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make that dream a reality,” the petition reads. “Let’s buy California from Donald Trump!”
The aim is to collect 500,000 signatures and crowdfund US$1 trillion (S$1.35 trillion) but the petition is only collecting signatures, not donations.
Tongue-in-cheek, it pitched five incentives for Danes to support the plan: sunshine, California’s tech scene, avocado toast, to protect the free world and Disneyland, which it proposed renaming Hans Christian Andersenland.
