Last week, an 18-foot-by-30-foot American flag with a green star printed beneath the white ones replaced a banner that read, “Welcome back, Mr. President!” outside the National Grange building on H Street, Northwest. Ryan Lambert, the building’s owner, says he asked his staff to print the star to demonstrate support for President Trump’s calls to buy Greenland, an autonomous territory that Denmark owns. Trump has also proposed making Canada the US’s 51st state, an idea that generated enormous backlash north of the 49th parallel.
“President Trump said he wanted Greenland to be the 51st state, and I like the president,” Lambert tells Washingtonian. The Houston native is a real estate developer by trade (he says his upbringing gave him an affinity for “wide open spaces”) and he moved to DC a few years ago with the goal of helping Trump achieve his political agenda. The flag is meant to show his support for bringing Greenland under American control. Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in acquiring the island, which Denmark refuses to sell. Lambert says he is willing to act as ambassador to Greenland or maybe as a “viceroy” to facilitate acquiring the autonomous territory, which has a population of 57,000.
“They’re great people” in Denmark, Lambert says, “but I think Americans are even greater. I don’t know why someone would say, ‘Hey, I don’t want to be part of that.’”
There’s actually a recent history of flags with 51 stars in DC, but their meaning has been much different. In 2019 and 2022, Mayor Muriel Bowser displayed 51-star flags on Pennsylvania Avenue to symbolize DC’s long and ongoing fight for statehood. She said she wanted to bring attention to the District’s 700,000 citizens who pay taxes but have no voting representation in Congress.
Lambert thinks DC should remain a federal district, but as to Canada? A self-described “fan of manifest destiny,” he says he could imagine it becoming the 52nd state, on the condition that Canadians first learn the workings of America and capitalism.
