U.S. President Donald Trump is dead set on taking control of Greenland, the world’s biggest island and a self-ruling territory of Denmark, despite opposition from Greenlanders and Danes.
Trump first put forward the idea of buying Greenland in 2019, during his first term as president. Since returning to the White House, he’s stepped up his rhetoric. “We need it. We have to have it,” Trump said on a conservative talk show on March 26, just weeks after vowing in a speech to Congress that he would “get” the semi-autonomous territory “one way or the other.”
It’s baffled and frustrated officials in Copenhagen and Greenland’s capital Nuuk, who’ve been clear that the territory is not for sale and its people have no desire for their land to become the 51st U.S. state.
Why does Trump want Greenland?
As Trump surely knows, other U.S. 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 Trump 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 U.S. control of the island is vital for national security.
What interest does the U.S. have in Greenland?
The island has long been a nexus of tensions among global powers.
Besides being bigger than Mexico and Saudi Arabia, Greenland has 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 U.S. 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.
Greenland is already home to the U.S.’s northernmost air base and a radar station that’s used for detecting missile threats and monitoring space.
Gaining control over Greenland could give the U.S. 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 Trump go about taking control of Greenland?
It’s unclear. When he brought up the idea of buying Greenland in 2019, adjunct Professor Rasmus Leander Nielsen of Greenland University told local media that Denmark can’t sell Greenland because its home-rule law of 2009 “clearly states that Greenlanders are their own people.”
Trump’s best hope would be for the territory to gain independence and then reach some kind of deal to make it part of the U.S. As it turns out, breaking away from Denmark has long been discussed in Greenland, though full independence is likely to be some way away for the island of 57,000 people.
But Trump’s 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 an election on March 11, in which three out of four Greenlandic voters opted for parties that back only a slow move to independence.
How credible is the idea of the U.S. buying Greenland?
Until a century ago, it wasn’t that unusual for a country’s government to buy a new territory: Before the Alaska purchase, the U.S. bought Louisiana from France for US$15 million in 1803.
There’s even a precedent involving Denmark. The government in Copenhagen sold what are now known as the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1917. More recently, other islands have come up for sale, but they tend to be smaller and located in warmer climates.
Joseph Blocher of the Duke University School of Law wrote in 2014 that the “market for sovereign territory seems to have dried up.”
How much might Greenland be worth?
Since the 830,000 square-mile (2.1 million square-kilometer) island isn’t currently on the market, there are no valuations available. However, for a sense of how much it might fetch, it’s worth noting that its gross domestic product totaled just over $3.2 billion in 2021, according to the World Bank.
Greenland receives an annual subsidy of around $600 million from Denmark. For perspective, the purchase price of Alaska in 1867, $7.2 million, would translate to just over $150 million today — which most would agree would be quite a bargain.
How would Greenlanders feel about becoming part of the U.S.?
Trump has said he supports Greenlanders’ right to determine their own future, but he appears confident he will get them on his side. However, recent opinion polls suggest he has a long way to go, with the island’s people overwhelmingly against the idea of joining the U.S.
Following the March election, leaders of all Greenland’s political parties came together to condemn the U.S. president’s approach, calling his behavior “unacceptable.”
And the election winner Jens-Frederik Nielsen, who is likely to become the territory’s new premier, has been clear that “Greenland is not a house you can buy” and that the territory needs to be tougher when dealing with Trump. That said, most lawmakers in Greenland are open to doing more business with the U.S.
How might Trump pay for an eventual Greenland deal?
Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress would have to approve money for any Greenland purchase. But Trump has previously shown a willingness to try to go around Congress’s power of the purse.
During his first term, when Congress refused to appropriate money for more fencing on the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump raided the Pentagon’s budget to find funds for it. The U.S. Supreme Court backed him up.
Sanne Wass and Sara Sjolin, Bloomberg News
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