Danish professor explains the Greenland outcome Trump 'could present as a victory'

Greenland is standing firm against Donald Trump's "more and more antagonistic" comments about making the territory part of the US. There might, however, be an outcome from the president's rhetoric that he could still "present as a victory," one Danish professor told The Hill.

Trump has had a longstanding desire to make Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, part of the US, dating back to his first term. This desire reemerged when he returned to the White House earlier in the year, and this time, he would not rule out economic or military intervention to make it happen.

Both Denmark and Greenland itself have pushed back on this idea, stressing that the vast Arctic island territory is not for sale and dismissing the Trump administrations repeated comments as a threat to its sovereignty. The people of Greenland have also routinely expressed major disapproval of the idea.

Nevertheless, Trump's desire to control the territory was reignited this week after he appointed Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry to the newly created position of special envoy to Greenland. Trump stated that Landry's specific goal would be to make Greenland "part of the U.S." While in the past, the reasoning for Trump's Greenland obsession has been about gaining its vast store of valuable minerals, he recently claimed that the US must control the island for "national security" reasons, a claim his administration has made more and more about a whole host of goals without any explanation as to why.

In a report about the situation published Wednesday, The Hill cited an expert who said that the likelihood of Trump's goal coming to fruition remained slim, though there was one possible path forward that he might be able to tout as a win. Marc Jacobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College and an Arctic security expert, told the outlet that while Greenland residents are strongly in favor of eventual independence from Denmark, they do not favor the US as an alternative, with Trump's rhetoric only making things worse.

"In Greenland, however, these efforts are counterproductive as Greenlanders are seeing the U.S. as more and more antagonistic and a less desirable partner on the road to independence," Jacobsen explained.

Jacobsen suspected that there are enough people in the “right positions” within Trump's orbit to “pull the handbrake” on his grander ideas about Greenland. The push could, however, lead to a new defense agreement between the US, Greenland and Denmark.

“It might not be significantly different from the one already in place, but it could provide Trump with a visible outcome, which he could present as a victory,” Jacobsen explained.