What do Americans think of Trump’s plans to acquire Greenland? Half say it’s a bad idea.

America and Greenland share a continent. They both have water on their East and West sides. The cost of living and number of airports is different, as is the size of their populations and their geography.

But according to a new poll that asked Americans what they think of President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to acquire Greenland, they have another thing in common: People in both countries think it’s not a great idea.
Even for an elected president with a track record of surprising proposals, Trump’s floated suggestion to take over the Arctic territory was met with widespread shock, according to an exclusive new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll.

The survey broadly mirrors anecdotal evidence that has emerged from Greenland in recent days in which people have been expressing consternation and confusion, but also a limited degree of excitement at Trump’s proposal.

More than half say it’s a bad idea; among those who think it’s a good idea, the majority think it’s unrealistic, according to an exclusive new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll.
Of 1,000 people polled from Jan. 7 to Jan. 11, 53% didn’t support acquiring Greenland, 29% thought it was a good idea but didn’t think it could realistically happen, and just 11% said the Trump administration should do everything it can to make it a reality.

Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of Democrats – 86% – were opposed to taking Greenland. But among Republicans, just 23% said Trump should pursue the policy, while around half – 48% – said it was good but unrealistic and 21% said it was not a good plan.
‘The most stupid thing I ever heard’

Gray Holland, 23, cast his ballot for Trump in November in the hopes Trump would cut funding for Ukraine and crack down on immigration. But taking over Greenland, Holland said, seemed like a bad joke.
“I thought it was funny at first, him joking about that idea,” said Gray, who lives in Cary, North Carolina, and works in sports tickets operations. “But once he started actually talking about military deployment … no, I cannot get behind that.”
Some Democrats had harsher words for the idea. “That’s the most stupid thing I’ve ever heard,” said Daniel Ander, 68, a retired civil engineer from Port Orchard, Washington. Trump “likes to do all this chaos so you don’t really realize nothing’s happening. He’s just creating chaos.”