"It must be an April Fool’s Day joke ... but totally out of season!" wrote former Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen.

STOCKHOLM, August 16. /TASS/. Danish politicians have regarded reports that US President Donald Trump is showing interest in purchasing Greenland - an autonomous Danish territory - as a far-fetched joke, former members of the Danish government wrote on their official Twitter pages on Friday.

"Trump is buying Greenland? Hopefully, this is a joke, but otherwise a terrible thought that carries a risk of Greenland’s militarization and less independence for the Greenlanders, apart from a great loss for Denmark," former Foreign Minister Martin Ligedaard stressed.

"Well. But I believe we will keep our 370 mln barrels of land," former Justice Minister Soren Pind underlined.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Trump, who is paying an official visit to Denmark on September 2-3, had shared his interest with his aides in purchasing Greenland. The article says that some of his aides supported the idea, saying that such a step could be economically expedient. Others close to the president are certain that this initiative could never succeed. The newspaper suggests that Trump’s aides were particularly discussing whether Washington could boost its military presence in the Arctic by purchasing Greenland in light of the president’s ideas.

The article points out that last year Trump asked those close to him to pay attention to the fact that Denmark was facing financial difficulties because Greenland makes up a part of the Kingdom. The US leader also then posed a question to his aides whether they thought Washington should try to buy this territory.