It would be naïve to fully rely on the old way of diplomacy, but it would mean certain defeat to do business on the terms of authoritarians. Trump wants unilateral, flashy diplomacy, because that’s where he wins. Small countries like Denmark need to work to bolster multilateral large-alliance rules based diplomacy, because that’s where they win.

By not rising to the bait, but instead presenting a calm, unified European response that there is no way Trump can buy Greenland, but that they’re happy to help him achieve whatever policy he’s using to justify this invasion talk, they at least have a chance of staving him off long enough that the whole thing fizzles out.

This approach also makes it a lot harder for Trump to actually make good on his threats. He’ll have to start a conflict with the whole EU, and he’ll end up looking like a guy who pisses on a cooperative ally rather than the strong man who beats down uppity foreigners.

And yes, that’s probably also fine by him, but it at least doesn’t play into his hand.

No-one is ignoring him. The Danish diplomacy corps is on high alert, and tons of effort is going into both securing support from Europe and trying to talk the US down.

They just don’t do diplomacy through Twitter. Public mud-throwing is Trump’s game, no need to fight him on his terms.