Trump won’t rule out military action to take control of Greenland

Donald Trump shocked the world yesterday when he hinted at the incendiary idea of invading Greenland for ‘national security purposes’. But the US President-elect has long expressed interest in taking control of the island, which is a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark – a longtime US ally and a founding member of NATO – and already voiced his takeover plan during his first time in office.

And Greenland’s strategic location, its vast deposits of rare earth elements as well as its influence on the global weather may be just some of the reasons why. Greenland’s unique location straddling the Arctic circle between the US, Russia and Europe makes the island a geopolitical prize that the US and others like Russia and China have eyed for more than 150 years. The vast landmass is considered a key corridor for naval operations between the Arctic and the North Atlantic, with Greenland hosting a large US military base that has been vital ever since the Cold War.

By acquiring Greenland, Trump would ensure continued access to Pituffik Space Base – despite there being no current threat to stop access. ‘We need Greenland for national security purposes,’ Trump said on the weekend after declaring he would not rule out the use of military force or economic pressure in the form of brutal tariffs on Denmark to seize control of the island. Both Russia and China have tried to reaffirm their presence in the Arctic by putting forward plans to build infrastructure in the region for shipping and resource mining over the last decade.

Global warming is causing the ice in the region to retreat, opening up shipping lanes and access to incredible riches, making the region a new geopolitical and economic asset, with the US, Russia, China and others wanting in. Greenland boasts valuable rare earth minerals needed for telecommunications, as well as uranium, billions of untapped barrels of oil and a vast supply of natural gas that used to be inaccessible but is becoming less so as the ice is retreating. Many of the same minerals are currently being supplied mostly by China , so other countries such as the United States are interested, Ohio University security and environment professor Geoff Dabelko said.

Three years ago, the Denmark government suspended oil development offshore from the territory of 57,000 people. The world’s largest island is now ‘central to the geopolitical, geoeconomic competition in many ways,’ partly because of climate change , Dabelko said. Off Greenland’s shores, the US Geological Survey estimates there could be 17.5 billion undiscovered barrels of oil and 148 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, though the remote location and harsh weather have limited exploration. Around the Arctic Circle, there’s potential for 90 billion barrels of oil.

Aside from oil, gas or mineral, there is a ‘ridiculous’ amount of ice in Greenland that plays a key role in regulating global weather, according to climate scientist Eric Rignot of the University of California , Irvine. If that ice melts, it would reshape coastlines across the globe and potentially shift weather patterns in such a dramatic manner that the threat was the basis of a Hollywood disaster movie. Greenland holds enough ice that if it all melts, the world’s seas would rise by 24 feet (7.4 meters). Nearly a foot of that is so-called zombie ice, already doomed to melt no matter what happens, a 2022 study found.

Since 1992, Greenland has lost about 182 billion tons (169 billion metric tons) of ice each year, with losses hitting 489 billion tons a year (444 billion metric tons) in 2019. ‘Think of Greenland as an open refrigerator door or thermostat for a warming world, and it’s in a region that is warming four times faster than the rest of the globe,’ said New York University climate scientist David Holland. Greenland will be ‘a key focus point’ through the 21st century because of the effect its melting ice sheet will have on sea levels, said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado . Serreze added: ‘It will likely become a bigger contributor in the future.’ That impact is ‘perhaps unstoppable,’ Holland said.

Greenland is part of the Danish realm along with the Faeroe Islands, another semi-autonomous territory, and has its own government and parliament. Greenland’s 57,000 residents got extensive home rule in 1979 but Denmark still handles foreign and defense policies, with an annual subsidy of $670 million. Its indigenous people are not wealthy, and vehicles, restaurants, stores and basic services are few. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen addressed Trump’s intent to buy Greenland last night, saying that she did not believe that the US will use military or economic power to secure control over the island.

She also called the US Denmark’s ‘most important and closest ally’ and repeated that she welcomed the US taking a greater interest in the Arctic region, but that it would ‘have to be done in a way that is respectful of the Greenlandic people’. ‘At the same time, it must be done in a way that allows Denmark and the United States to still cooperate in, among other things, NATO,’ Frederiksen said. Earlier, Trump posted a video of his private plane landing in Nuuk, the Arctic territory’s capital, in a landscape of snow-capped peaks and fjords. ‘ Don Jr . and my Reps landing in Greenland,’ Trump wrote. ‘The reception has been great. They, and the Free World, need safety, security, strength, and PEACE! This is a deal that must happen. MAGA. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!’

In a statement, Greenland’s government said Donald Trump Jr.’s visit was taking place ‘as a private individual’ and not as an official visit, and Greenlandic representatives would not meet with him. Don Jr. also posted a picture with locals wearing MAGA hats on X with the caption: ‘Greenland loves America and Trump!!! Incredible people with an equally awesome reception. ‘They just want to be able to utilize some of the incredible resources that they have and allow themselves, their country, and their kids to flourish.’ This it not the first time an American president suggested buying the island. There were two failed attempts by U.S. to purchase it: President Harry Truman tried to buy it for $100 million in 1946 and the State Department inquired about it in 1867.

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