In 2019, right through his first time period, U.S. President Donald Trump expressed a need to shop for Greenland, which has been part of Denmark for some 300 years. Danes and Greenlanders briefly rebuffed the be offering on the time.
All the way through Trump’s 2nd time period, the ones gives have became to threats.
Trump stated on his social media platform Reality Social in overdue December 2024 that, for functions of nationwide safety, U.S. keep watch over over Greenland used to be a need. The president has persisted to insist at the nationwide safety rationale into January 2026. And he has refused to rule out the usage of army power to keep watch over Greenland.
From my viewpoint as a world family members pupil fascinated with Europe, Trump’s nationwide safety rationale doesn’t make sense. Greenland, just like the U.S., is a member of NATO, which gives a collective protection pact, that means member countries will reply to an assault on any alliance member. And on account of a 1951 protection settlement between the U.S. and Denmark, the U.S. can already construct army installations in Greenland to give protection to the area.
Trump’s 2025 Nationwide Safety Technique, which stresses keep watch over of the Western Hemisphere and maintaining China out of the area, supplies perception into Trump’s pondering.
US pursuits in Greenland
The US has attempted to procure Greenland a number of occasions.
In 1867, Secretary of State William Seward commissioned a survey of Greenland. Inspired with the abundance of herbal sources at the island, he driven to procure Greenland and Iceland for US$5.5 million – kind of $125 million lately.
However Congress used to be nonetheless involved in regards to the acquire of Alaska that yr, which Seward had engineered. It had noticed Alaska as too chilly and too far away from the remainder of the U.S. to justify spending $7.2 million – kind of $164 million lately – even if Congress in the long run agreed to do it. There used to be now not sufficient nationwide reinforce for some other frozen land.
In 1910, the U.S. ambassador to Denmark proposed a posh business involving Germany, Denmark and america. Denmark would give the U.S. Greenland, and the U.S. would give Denmark islands within the Philippines. Denmark would then give the ones islands to Germany, and Germany would go back Schleswig-Holstein – Germany’s northernmost state – to Denmark.
However the U.S. briefly pushed aside the proposed business as too audacious.
All the way through Global Struggle II, Nazi Germany occupied Denmark, and the U.S. assumed the position of protector of each Greenland and Iceland, either one of which belonged to Denmark on the time. The U.S. constructed airstrips, climate stations and radar and communications stations – 5 on Greenland’s east coast and 9 at the west coast.
The Pituffik House Base, previously Thule Air Base, is pictured in northern Greenland on Oct. 4, 2023.
Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
The U.S. used Greenland and Iceland as bases for bombers that attacked Germany and German-occupied spaces. Greenland had a excessive worth for army strategists on account of its location within the North Atlantic – to counter Nazi threats to Allied transport lanes and give protection to transatlantic routes, and as it used to be a midpoint for refueling U.S. plane. Greenland’s significance additionally rested on its deposits of cryolite, helpful for making aluminum.
In 1946, the Truman management introduced to shop for Greenland for $100 million, as U.S. army leaders concept it might play a important position within the Chilly Struggle.
The name of the game U.S. mission Operation Blue Jay firstly of the Chilly Struggle resulted within the building of Thule Air Base in northwestern Greenland, which allowed U.S. bombers to be nearer to the Soviet Union. Renamed Pituffik House Base, lately it supplies a 24/7 missile caution and house surveillance facility this is important to NATO and U.S. safety technique.
On the finish of Global Struggle II, Denmark identified Greenland as one among its territories. In 1953, Greenland received constitutional rights and turned into a rustic throughout the Kingdom of Denmark. Greenland used to be assigned self-rule in 1979, and through 2009 it turned into a self-governing nation, nonetheless throughout the Kingdom of Denmark, which contains Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
Denmark acknowledges the federal government of Greenland as an equivalent spouse and lately gave it a extra vital position as the primary voice for Denmark within the Arctic Council, which promotes cooperation within the Arctic.
What america would possibly need
The Trump management’s 2025 Nationwide Safety Technique identifies 3 threats within the Western Hemisphere: migration, medication and crimes, and China’s expanding affect.
Two of the ones threats are inappropriate when bearing in mind Greenland. Greenlandic folks don’t seem to be migrating to the U.S., and they aren’t drug traffickers. Then again, Greenland is wealthy in uncommon earth minerals, together with neodymium, dysprosium, graphite, copper and lithium.
Moreover, China seeks to ascertain mining pursuits in Greenland and the Arctic as a part of its Polar Silk Street initiative. China had introduced to construct an infrastructure for Greenland, together with bettering the airport, till Denmark stepped in and introduced airport investment. And China has labored with Australian corporations to safe mining alternatives at the island.
A U.S. Air Pressure helicopter flies close to Thule Air Base in Greenland in 1955.
James McAnally/Archive Footage/Getty Pictures
The ones uncommon earth minerals enchantment to the Eu Union, too. The EU lists some 30 uncooked fabrics which might be crucial for his or her economies. Twenty-five are in Greenland.
The Trump management has made it transparent that controlling those minerals is a countrywide safety factor, and the president desires to stay them clear of China.
Figures range, however it’s estimated that over 60% of uncommon earth parts or minerals are lately mined in China. China additionally refines some 90% of uncommon earths. This offers China super leverage in business talks. And it ends up in a deadly vulnerability for the U.S. and different country states looking for to modernize their economies. With few providers of those uncommon earth parts, the political and financial prices of securing them are excessive.
Greenland has simplest two working mines. One is the Tan Breez mission in southern Greenland. It produces 17 metals, together with terbium and neodymium, which might be utilized in high-strength magnets utilized in many inexperienced applied sciences and in plane production, together with for the F-35 fighter planes.
Imagine for a second that Trump isn’t all for proudly owning Greenland.
As a substitute, he’s the use of this threatening place to safe guarantees from the Greenlandic govt to make financial offers with the U.S. and now not China. Thus, Trump’s threats may well be much less about nationwide safety and a lot more about getting rid of festival from China and securing wealth for U.S. pursuits.
This type of coercive international relations threatens the political and financial construction of now not simplest Greenland however Europe. In fresh interviews, Trump has made it transparent that he does now not admire global legislation and the sovereignty of nations. His place, I consider, undermines the global order and gets rid of the U.S. as a accountable chief of that framework established after Global Struggle II.
