Over the course of President Donald Trump’s second term, he’s raised eyebrows and tempers with his frequently-expressed desire for the United States to acquire Greenland, suggesting that it could be done by force if necessary. So far, his efforts have failed, but now in the absence of outright ownership, Trump is trying a new approach: total economic control.
According to the Daily Beast, Trump’s latest attempt at an Arctic “power grab” involves “pushing for the U.S. to gain sweeping influence over Greenland by demanding the power to block future Chinese or Russian investments. ... Under the proposal, the U.S. would gain the ability to block companies linked to China and Russia from striking infrastructure or mining deals in Greenland.”
A need to counter these two adversaries, China and Russia, is supposedly driving Trump’s conquest of Greenland. While the island nation is part of Danish territory, Trump argues that it U.S. control of it is vital for national security, previously asserting, “If we don’t take Greenland, Russia or China will, and I’m not letting that happen.”
Trump’s rhetoric about the island was so contentious that it has become a key fault line in the U.S.-NATO alliance that has fractured during his presidency. While Greenland and Denmark agreed to hold high-level talks with the U.S. in an effort to ease tensions, no final agreement has been reached, though officials have held several discussions on increasing American military presence on the island.
Central to those talks was the American desire for access to Greenland’s vast resources, such as oil, uranium, and rare earth minerals, the last of which is vital for modern fighter jets and electric vehicles. China currently dominates the rare earth minerals market, controlling roughly 70 percent of supply and 90 percent of processing, and the U.S. seeks to eliminate that reliance out of fears that the situation could be weaponized in the event of future conflict.
While Trump has floated the idea of establishing three new U.S. military bases on the island, both Greenland and Denmark have warned that American military pressure is unwanted and may mean the destruction of NATO. As the Greenland government and opposition stated in January, “We do not want to be Americans, we do not want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders. The future of Greenland must be decided by the Greenlandic people.”
Trump has maintained the military necessity for U.S. ownership of Greenland, but some analysts have suggested that his true motivation may be personal. According to Atlantic political reporter Vivian Salama, “His advisers told me that the Greenland squeeze is part of a broader effort to cement his legacy among the elite club of presidents that includes Polk, Jefferson, and Dwight Eisenhower, who significantly expanded the size of the country.”
