The saga of President Donald Trump’s bid to acquire Greenland for the U.S. continues with some fascinating developments over the last few days, especially the tweet asserting that full control of the Arctic Island is his ultimate goal.
Whether this is reality, a negotiating tactic, or a diversion to refocus attention from other matters remains to be seen.
In my last report, I noted that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had agreed to meet with officials from Denmark and Greenland on the matter. Since then, there has been a sharp escalation of the U.S. push to bring Greenland under American control, capped today by a tense White House meeting that included Vice President J.D. Vance.
The meeting produced a new U.S.–Danish working group but left the core dispute between the U.S. and their Danish and Greenlandic counterparts unresolved.
“Greenland is very important for the national security, including of Denmark,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “And the problem is there’s not a thing that Denmark can do about it if Russia or China wants to occupy Greenland, but there’s everything we can do. You found that out last week with Venezuela,” he added.Earlier in the day, the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance at the White House.Following that meeting, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt said the U.S. and Denmark would form a working group to discuss a broad array of concerns regarding the island that could meet in the coming weeks.But they also made clear that Washington had not budged on its position that it must acquire Greenland, an outcome Rasmussen and Motzfeldt described as an unacceptable breach of sovereignty.
The Danish official went big on the hyperbole after the meeting, asserting that Trump wanted to conquer Greenland.
A top Danish official said Wednesday that a “fundamental disagreement” over Greenland remains with President Donald Trump after holding highly anticipated White House talks with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio….”The group, in our view, should focus on how to address the American security concerns, while at the same time respecting the red lines of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told reporters after joining Greenland’s foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, for the talks.He added that it remains “clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland.”
The Danes drew a line in the ice by stating that “Greenland was not for sale”, despite an offer of potentially $700 billion dollars (the cost of 3 Somali daycares).
One possible reason for Trump’s intense focus on acquiring Greenland actually stems from a security analysis prepared by the Danes. Danish military intelligence indicates that Russia and China are actively building up military and strategic capabilities in the Arctic and see Greenland and nearby waters as important in any future conflict.
[T]the “Intelligence Outlook 2025” report on the security of the Kingdom of Denmark, released just last month, had warned at great length that “China is preparing for a military presence in the Arctic” and that “China’s long-term Arctic interests include Greenland.” The report highlighted Chinese air-based, seaborne, and submersible activities in the Arctic.The Danish intelligence report had further assessed that the militaries of China and Russia were collaborating more closely in the Arctic, displaying the growing “DragonBear” alliance between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.The report noted that Russia “uses every available tool to monitor and chart the waters between Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and the United Kingdom” as “part of the preparations for a potential confrontation with NATO” and as the Kremlin deploys submarines, ships, and planes near Greenland.
Analysts this week highlighted that the Cold War‑era defense pact already allows Washington to expand its military footprint in Greenland significantly without changing sovereignty, raising questions about why formal acquisition is being pursued.
Under a little-known Cold War agreement, the United States already enjoys sweeping military access in Greenland. Right now, the United States has one base in a very remote corner of the island. But the agreement allows it to “construct, install, maintain, and operate” military bases across Greenland, “house personnel” and “control landings, takeoffs, anchorages, moorings, movements, and operation of ships, aircraft, and waterborne craft.”It was signed in 1951 by the United States and Denmark, which colonized Greenland more than 300 years ago and still controls some of its affairs.“The U.S. has such a free hand in Greenland that it can pretty much do what it wants,” said Mikkel Runge Olesen, a researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen.“I have a very hard time seeing that the U.S. couldn’t get pretty much everything it wanted,” he said, adding, “if it just asked nicely.”
However, it should be noted that a great many European nations seem unwilling and/or unable to defend their own countries. And, as an added bonus, their leaders arrogantly take shots at our nation while demanding we act as their protection.
Making Greenland our own would help put diplomatic distance between us and the progressive and destructive leadership of the European Union.
It will be interesting to see if this “working group” actually works.
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