During a speech given to mark the Scandinavian country’s Constitution Day Monday, Rasmussen said that Trump had made the “wrong decision.”

At the speech in Skanderborg, Rasmussen said that Denmark, though not perfect, was one of the world’s best countries, before quoting Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, who said “If we could all be like the Scandinavians, everything would be a lot easier,” reports broadcaster DR.

Rasmussen – who was one of the first European leaders to meet Trump when he visited Washington in April – then made the unusual step of criticising the US president.

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“Last week we saw a saddening example of how global leadership can be jeopardised. President Trump announced that he is pulling his country out of the global climate agreement. That is the wrong decision,” said the PM, who was himself a signatory to the December 2015 agreement, though his government was criticised at the time for cuts within green innovation and a lowering of national climate goals.

With Trump’s announcement, the United States joins Nicaragua and Syria as the only countries not signed up to the accord – Nicaragua did not sign in in 2015 as it said the terms did not go far enough, and Syria due to its ongoing civil conflict.

Rasmussen added that he remained confident in global green energy despite the US withdrawal from Paris.

“The global movement in favour of green energy conversion is only going one way – forwards. And even though the United States is now choosing to become a member of the lonely club that is outside of the Paris Agreement, development will still continue within the USA. The president may be the world’s most powerful man, but not all decisions are made in the White House” the Danish PM said.

READ ALSO: Danish PM on Paris agreement: I can't dictate to Trump

Rasmussen noted that the states of New York, California and Washington have already established an alliance for continued commitment to the agreement.

But we'll take matters into our own hands. I plan to sign an executive order maintaining New York City’s commitment to the Paris Agreement. https://t.co/8oByikDt7C

— Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) May 31, 2017

But the Danish PM said that he considered the consequences of the Trump announcement for the value of international agreements to be an even greater concern that its effects on climate change.

“It is a decision that I believe is based on a misunderstanding of what the United States’ own international interests are. It is a decision that threatens to undermine the United States’ global leadership,” Rasmussen said.

The United States is giving other countries the opportunity to step into the role of global leaders by taking a backwards step on climate, according to the PM.

READ ALSO: Climate denier Trump has Danish minister worried

Rasmussen’s words represent a “significant break” with the consistently pro-US foreign policy position the Danish government has previously adopted, according to Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen, head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen.

Denmark has not ventured from American foreign policy positions since the end of the Cold War, Vedby Rasmussen told DR.

But the PM’s speech can be taken as a sign that Denmark is now prepared to align itself more closely to Germany, as well as France and the rest of the EU on foreign policy and security issues, the professor said.

“There is a significant break with the course followed hitherto when the prime minister says that what the USA is doing is bad and that Denmark does not want to be a part of it,” Vedby Rasmussen said.

“I cannot remember the last time a Danish prime minister criticised an American president in the Constitution Day speech – if it’s ever happened. This is therefore a clear signal that after years of alliance with the US and Britain, Denmark is now beginning to turn elsewhere to find our security and access to markets,” he added.