US President Trump is obsessed with taking over Greenland. Why?
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US President Donald Trump said that US control of Greenland is vital for national security.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump has long said he wants to take control of Greenland
He has stepped up the pressure during his second term in office, baffling and frustrating officials in Copenhagen and in Greenland’s capital Nuuk, who have made it clear that the island is not for sale.
The seizure of Venezuela’s President by US special forces
After the operation, Mr Trump repeated his ambitions for Greenland, drawing the sternest response yet from Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
Could Trump really take over Greenland?
Denmark’s government once saw Mr Trump’s designs on Greenland as a fantasy.
It is now taking them more seriously and has summoned the US ambassador repeatedly over the matter. In December, a Danish intelligence agency for the first time described the US as a potential security risk.
The Trump administration has framed its intervention in Venezuela as a modern reinterpretation of the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, under which the US declared the Western Hemisphere off-limits to colonisation by other nations.
That logic could, in theory, be extended to Greenland as well. A military move there would represent a serious escalation.
The US has long seen Venezuela as an adversary, and did not recognise President Nicolas Maduro as its legitimate leader. Denmark is a close US partner and fellow member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Any use of force against Greenland would pit NATO allies against one another and could spark an existential crisis for the military alliance.
Washington has blamed Venezuela’s government for stoking regional instability and fuelling drug trafficking. Neither Greenland nor Denmark present a threat to US security.
After the US operation in Venezuela, Danish Premier Frederiksen called upon Mr Trump to stop threatening to take control over Greenland
“I need to say this very directly to the US,” Ms Frederiksen said in a statement on Jan 4.
“The US has no right to annex any of the three countries of the Kingdom of Denmark.”
Why does Trump want Greenland?
As Mr Trump surely knows, other US leaders have made their mark in history for such grand ideas, with Andrew Johnson remembered as the president who oversaw the acquisition of Alaska from Russia in 1867.
When Mr Trump first suggested a potential Greenland purchase back in 2019, he presented it as “a large real estate deal” that could ease Denmark’s state finances. His argument this time around is that US control of the island is vital for national security.
The president has said Denmark is not spending enough to protect the island.
Copenhagen has been diverting growing sums of money to the self-governing territory of 57,000 people, including billions of dollars for defences and infrastructure.
“They have a very small population, and I do not know – they say Denmark, but Denmark has spent no money. They have no military protection,” Mr Trump said on Dec 22.
“They say that Denmark was there 300 years ago or something, with a boat. Well, we were there with boats too, I am sure. So we will have to work it all out.”
What interest does the US have in Greenland?
The island has long been a nexus of tensions among global powers.
Bigger than Mexico and Saudi Arabia, Greenland sits at a strategic location straddling the North Atlantic and the Arctic, a region whose vast stores of critical minerals and fossil fuels are coveted by the US and its strategic rivals China and Russia.
The accelerated melting of Greenland’s ice sheet due to climate change potentially makes those deposits more accessible, while also opening up shorter shipping routes for trade between North America, Europe and Asia.
Mr Trump has pushed back on the notion that Greenland’s energy or minerals are fuelling his interest, saying the US had plenty of resources.
Greenland is already home to the US’s northernmost air base and a radar station that is used for detecting missile threats and monitoring space. Gaining control over Greenland could give the US government new opportunities to expand its air and naval presence in the Arctic and step up monitoring of Chinese and Russian activity there.
How would Greenlanders feel about becoming part of the US?
Opinion polls suggest the island’s people are overwhelmingly against the idea of joining the US.
Following a March 2025 election, leaders of all Greenland’s political parties came together to condemn the US President’s approach, calling his behaviour “unacceptable”.
Premier Jens-Frederik Nielsen has been clear that “Greenland is not a house you can buy” and that Greenlanders need to get tougher when dealing with Mr Trump.
That said, most lawmakers in Greenland are open to doing more business with the US.
Can Trump take control of Greenland without using force?
When Mr Trump brought up the idea of buying Greenland in 2019, adjunct Professor Rasmus Leander Nielsen of Greenland University told local media that Denmark cannot sell Greenland because its home-rule law of 2009 “clearly states that Greenlanders are their own people”.
Mr Trump’s best hope for acquiring Greenland through consent would be for the territory to gain independence, and then reach some kind of deal to make it part of the US.
As it turns out, breaking away from Denmark has long been discussed in Greenland, though full independence is unlikely to happen for several years.
Mr Trump’s growing interest in Greenland has caused unease, even fear, among its people over what would happen should they break away from Denmark too soon.
That concern was underscored in the March vote, in which three out of four Greenlandic voters opted for parties that back only a slow move to independence. BLOOMBERG
