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| A 3D-printed miniature model of President Donald Trump, superimposed against a map of Greenland. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters) |
| When President Donald Trump first floated acquiring Greenland in 2019, it seemed a joke. The idea was rebuffed by Denmark, to which the self-ruling island still belongs. At the time, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen described Trump’s hopes to purchase the territory as “absurd,” a reaction that the U.S. president said was “not nice,” and which led to him canceling a planned visit to Copenhagen. His quixotic quest faded away from the news cycle in a matter of weeks, one of many curious episodes within the general tumult of Trump’s first term. But Trump’s covetousness of Greenland is back on the agenda now that he’s started his second term. And this time, it doesn’t look like he’s going to let go of his ambitions so easily.
Trump has been adamant that the United States should exert control over the territory, given both its strategic position in a melting Arctic region where China and Russia also have growing interests, as well as the wealth of natural resources that are thought to lie beneath Greenland’s seabeds and frozen wastes. When Donald Trump Jr. appeared in Greenland this month for a publicity stunt, his father promised to “Make Greenland Great Again” in a social media post. Trump has since cast American ownership of Greenland as “an absolute necessity” for Western security, and on Saturday, in a gaggle with reporters, said “I think we’re going to have it.” Before his inauguration, Trump and Frederiksen conducted a lengthy phone call that shocked diplomats in Copenhagen. According to reports, Trump seemed to dismiss his Danish counterpart’s offers of greater security and economic cooperation. “It was horrendous,” a senior European official told the Financial Times. Another anonymous source speaking to the British newspaper said: “He was very firm. It was a cold shower. Before, it was hard to take it seriously. But I do think it is serious, and potentially very dangerous.” | ||||||
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| Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speak to the news media Jan. 28 in Berlin. (Maja Hitij/Getty Images) |
| Frederiksen is no longer treating Trump’s rhetoric as a joke. “We have never in my lifetime found ourselves in such a difficult time as now,” Frederiksen said, as reported by Danish media, speaking to the broader moment on the continent, given Russia’s war in Ukraine, but also to Trump’s disruptive return. “There is only one way through this, and that is ever closer and stronger European cooperation.” This week, Denmark announced a military spending package of about 2 billion euros for its northern territories, including Greenland and the Faroe Islands, that provide for, among other things, three new Arctic ships and more long-range drones. And on Tuesday, Frederiksen conducted a whirlwind tour of European capitals, meeting with the leaders of France, Germany and NATO in a bid to shore up political support. The statements from these meetings studiously avoided calling out Trump or Greenland’s newly contested status, but the subtext was obvious. This is a very, very clear message … that of course there must be respect for territory and the sovereignty of states,” Frederiksen said after calling on French President Emmanuel Macron. “This is a crucial part of the international community, the international community that we have built together since World War II.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who met with Frederiksen earlier Tuesday, lamented to reporters that “the times we live in are challenging” and warned that “borders must not be moved by force.” To underscore the point, he added, in English: “To whom it may concern.” Trump and his allies do not envision an invasion of Greenland. The United States already maintains a major air base on the island and hopes to strengthen its military’s foothold there, parallel to allied European governments, as Russia and China expand their presence in the Arctic. Instead, Trump is hoping for Copenhagen’s acquiescence in some sort of deal, framing a U.S. acquisition of the territory as an act of generosity to relieve Denmark of the burden of administering it. There is plenty of historical precedent. U.S. politicians have eyed Greenland for more than a century and a half. William Seward, the U.S. secretary of state who purchased Alaska in 1867, was close to a similar deal for Greenland, but was foiled by political rivals in Congress. With both northern territories folded into the United States, Seward suggested this continental nation “will flank British America for thousands of miles … and greatly increase her inducements, peacefully and cheerfully, to become a part of the American Union.” That is, he thought buying Greenland would be a precursor to absorbing Canada — a vision Trump hasn’t quite relinquished, either. In 1917, the United States under President Woodrow Wilson bought what was then the Danish West Indies (and now the U.S. Virgin Islands) from Denmark. Geopolitical concerns fueled the decision: Washington wanted to consolidate control over access to the newly opened Panama Canal and was eager to ward off possible German encroachment in the Caribbean should Denmark be annexed by the Kaiser next door. In his dealings with adversaries and allies alike, Trump seems intent on reviving the spirit of that earlier era of imperialist, great power politics, no matter the post-World War II norms and transatlantic alliances that have emerged over the past century. He has already threatened a growing list of countries — from Taiwan to Colombia and many in between — with punitive tariffs in a bid to win concessions. “This is an aggressive exercise of U.S. economic power in a way we have not seen in a very long time — at least not in the post-World War II era,” John Creamer, who was a senior diplomat for more than 35 years and a former deputy assistant secretary of state, told my colleagues. |
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| The statue of Hans Egede, the Dano-Norwegian Lutheran missionary who founded Nuuk, overlooks the capital city in Greenland. (Sebastien Van Malleghem/Sebastien Van Malleghem for The Washington Post) |
| Denmark’s case isn’t helped by the ambivalence of Greenlanders. While a recent poll found 85 percent of Greenlanders oppose joining the United States, many of the territory’s political class are not pleased with the status quo and favor full-fledged independence. In his New Year’s speech, Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede denounced “the shackles of the colonial era,” with the island’s under 60,000-strong population comprised largely of Indigenous Inuit peoples, who have sat uncomfortably for decades in Copenhagen’s periphery. Danish officials, including the prime minister, have stressed that “Greenland is for Greenlanders,” but Egede might push for an independence referendum in the coming months. Trump’s calculus may be that an independent Greenland would be more primed to tether itself to the United States. “It depends how far Trump wants to take it,” Jorgen Boassen, a well-known Greenlander Trump fan, told my colleague William Booth this month, as dozens of Western journalists wandered around the island’s remote capital city, Nuuk. He suggested Greenland could win independence “and then we can make our own deal.” In Washington, some Trump allies are warming to the challenge. Rep. Andrew Ogles (R-Tennessee) this month introduced the “Make Greenland Great Again” Act, which would direct Congress to back Trump’s negotiations to acquire the territory. Putting the cart well before the horse, the right-wing Heritage Foundation suggested Greenland could have the same status as other quasi-colonial territories like Guam or Puerto Rico, or be a “freely associated state” like the Pacific archipelago republic of Palau, which relies on the United States for its defense and votes in lockstep with Washington at the United Nations. What Greenland shouldn’t get from the United States, warned the thinktank’s scholars Hans von Spakovsky and Victoria Coates, is statehood. That “would guarantee the addition of two Democrats to the Senate and at least one Democrat to the House, and they would almost certainly be European-style socialists,” they wrote. Trump and his cohort may value Greenland, but they may not be so sure about its voters. |