Map from Drilling history of Greenland – Exploration for minerals and petroleum, and scientific projects – ScienceDirect, showing resource exploration and drilling sites around Greenland.
Donald Trump is firmly trying to aquire Greenland. Trump has been chasing Greenland since the end of his first presidency, 2019 to be exact, but was unsuccessful. Back in 2019, when Trump first pushed for Greenland, Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, called Trump’s want “Absurd” and essentially brushed it off, according to CNN’s article Trump’s Greenland Framework sounds a lot like an already existing 1951 deal.
2019 wasn’t the first time the United States has gone after Greenland. Back in 1867, after the purchase of Alaska from Russia, Andrew Johnson’s secretary of state set his eyes on arctic territories. A former secretary of state, named Robert J. Walker, who also helped with the Alaska deal, recommended Greenland. Later, in 1910, in 1946 and over a 44 year span from 1947 to 1991, the United States offered or contemplated offering to acquire Greenland, but to no success.
Trump, two weeks after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s capture and about a year after he got into office, is trying to acquire Greenland for national security reasons, but there is a lot more to Greenland than just national security. This would help national security because the Chinese and Russians main point of attack, if they were to attack the United States would be from the Artic, which Greenland gives the United States better access to both the Artic and Atlanic Oceans.
Greenland is the world’s largest island, but its position in between North America, the arctic and Europe makes it a great geographical location for early warning systems in cases of missile strikes. It also lies as a great spot to check vessels in the region, BBC has posted. Greenland is mostly covered in ice except its most southern edge, but has large natural resource counts in uranium, iron and rare earth minerals, not to mention potential oil and natural gas reserves.
Now, Trump has been clear that he does not want to use force or violence, he wants a solely diplomatic solution. Trump’s most recent offer really pushed for mineral rights for the United States, with his leading argument being that he needs to stop Russia and China’s “Ambitions for the Arctic,” CNN said in the same article from before. Trump also offered 700 billion dollars to flat out buy Greenland and six billion dollars combined to compensate the citizens of Denmark that live there on the island, CNN said in the same article as before. Noah Manguso has said, “ I understand why Trump is wanting Greenalnd, I think it would be good for our economy, but I don’t think we should do it because it could start World War Three.”
According to speculation, Germany threatened to withdraw from the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), better known as FIFA, if the United States invaded Greenland. Leaving a soccer league doesn’t pose any serious resolution to this mishap.
While Trump has openly stated that he will not invade or violently take Greenland, only the future will answer questions and true or false beliefs.
