When Donald Trump first offered to buy Greenland in 2019, he was widely ridiculed and nothing happened except for a state visit to Denmark being canceled. Six years later, President Trump’s new “bid” for the world’s largest island is back on the table.
And there with renewed vigor. In an interview on January 7, the incoming US president refused to rule out the possibility of using force to occupy Greenland, and to emphasize his seriousness, the president-elect of his son Don Don Junior “and various representatives” to Greenland, he said. With Elon Musk on board, money may not be an obstacle to any deal Trump envisions.
Trump is not the first American politician to try to buy Greenland. The earliest recorded attempt to capture the island dates back to 1868.
The last serious effort before President Trump was in 1946 by President Harry S. Truman’s administration. President Trump’s renewed interest in Greenland thus falls within a long tradition of American territorial expansion efforts.
Even without this historical context, President Trump’s latest bid is less irrational today than it seemed in 2019. On the other hand, Greenland is exceptionally rich in so-called “critical minerals.” According to a 2024 report by The Economist, the island has known deposits of 43 of 50 of these minerals. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, these minerals are essential to “technologies that produce, transmit, store, and conserve energy” and are “at high risk of supply chain disruption.”
The latter is certainly a legitimate concern, given that China, a major supplier of several critical minerals to global markets, has tightened export controls as part of its ongoing trade war with the United States. It is. Access to Greenland’s resources would allow the U.S. government to improve supply chain security and limit Chinese influence.
strategic value
Greenland’s strategic location also makes it valuable to the United States. An existing U.S. military base, Pitafik Space Station, is key to U.S. missile early warning and defense and plays an important role in space surveillance. Future base expansion could also strengthen the United States’ ability to monitor Russian naval movements in the Arctic Ocean and North Atlantic Ocean.
If President Trump’s deal goes through, U.S. sovereignty over Greenland would also effectively block rivals, especially China, from trying to gain a foothold in Greenland. This would be a problem if Greenland were part of NATO member Denmark, which continued to maintain the island’s economic viability with subsidies of around US$500m (£407m) a year. may become less of a concern.
An independence movement is growing in Greenland.
Greenland’s independence (support for which is steadily increasing) could open the door to more and less regulated foreign investment. In this case, China is seen as particularly keen to intervene if the opportunity arises.
Add to that the growing security cooperation between Russia and China and the fact that Russia has become more militarily aggressive in general, and Trump’s claims seem even more believable. He is not the only one sounding the alarm. Canada, Denmark and Norway have all recently pushed back against Russia and China’s expansion in the Arctic.
The problem with Mr. Trump’s proposal, then, is not that it is based on a misdiagnosis of the fundamental problem it seeks to address. The growing influence of Russia and China in the Arctic region in general has become a security issue amid increasing geopolitical conflicts. In this context, it is undeniable that Greenland poses a special and significant security vulnerability for the United States.
Read more: How the West is thwarting Russia’s attempts to exploit the Arctic in the Ukraine war
Flaws in President Trump’s plan
The problem is President Trump’s “America First” tunnel vision as he searches for solutions. He insisted he wanted Greenland and would get it, even if it meant exceptional tariffs on Danish exports (think Novo Nordisk weight loss pills) or the use of force. .
As expected, Greenland and Denmark rejected the new “offer”. And major allies, including France and Germany, figuratively for now, rushed to their defense.
Peter Hermes Julián/Shutterstock
Rather than strengthening U.S. security, President Trump is likely effectively weakening it by once again weakening Western alliances. The irony of doing so in the North Atlantic not only seems lost on President Trump. But there also appears to be a more fundamental problem at work here, in that this kind of 19th-century expansionism reflects President Trump’s isolationist impulses.
“Incorporating” Greenland into the United States would likely protect the United States from disruption to critical mineral supply chains and keep Russia and China at bay. And the signal that he will do it at all costs goes beyond the kind of rantings and bombast usually associated with Trump, and shows that his approach to foreign policy will soon be hanging up the gloves.
Rather than invest in increased security cooperation with Denmark and other NATO and European allies to confront Russia and China in the Arctic and beyond, Mr. Trump and his team believe that the United States will Maybe they think they can escape. This is a huge and unwarranted gamble, given that what is at stake here is America’s relationship with its closest ally to date.
No great power in history has ever been able to survive on its own forever. And this situation is unlikely to change, even if Greenland is captured by tricks and tricks.
