Greenland

Your Primer on Greenland.
Here are some quick talking points, when people ask, ‘What the hell is this about?’
James Fallows
This morning [18 January] on Fox, two well-matched intellects: Maria Bartiromo and Ted Cruz. Next to them is a Fox-produced map making Greenland look bigger than China, which in reality is more than four times its size. And on a par with the whole of Africa, which in fact is nearly 15 times as large. Fox is famous as the main source of real-time intel for the person who has assumed one-man control of US military, economic, and diplomatic relations with the world. What could go wrong?
… Greenland is smaller than you think. But the distances and remoteness are larger.
The island is smaller than it appears on most maps, as mentioned above and in this post.
But its distances and remoteness are profound. Far more people live within my tiny jurisdiction in Washington DC than in the entirety of Greenland. (Ward 3, in Northwest Washington, is about 10 square miles, and has nearly 80,000 people. All of Greenland is about 850,000 square miles, and has about 55,000 people.) There are no roads between the few “cities.” Almost no plants can grow there, except at Greenland’s far southern tip, near Nuuk. In a week there, we did not see a single tree. Everything about it is remote. Everything except fish must be brought in from “away.”

11 February
Canada’s Muscular New Anti-Trump Strategy Debuts in Greenland
How an icy town of 20,000 became a testing ground for the new international order.
(Politico Magazine) Opening a Canadian consulate in Nuuk, the capital of the autonomous territory of Greenland in the Kingdom of Denmark, has been in the works for over a year. But the timing, coinciding with both another round of menacing from U.S. President Donald Trump and bracing talk at Davos by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney of the need to forge new alliances, is not lost on anyone here.
There are thousands of towns and cities across the U.S. and Canada that have a population larger than the 20,000 people who live in Nuuk. But the small town, full of colorful houses spread across rocky outcroppings, has become the white-hot center of the 21st century’s great power competition — a place where foreign policy doctrines conceived in faraway capitals become manifest, the leading edge of the next developing Cold War.
This coming weekend, Carney signs a defense co-operation agreement with Denmark at the Munich Security Conference. That agreement will include co-operation in Greenland, the Arctic and “NATO’s eastern flank,” …
The Arctic has been a priority for Carney from the start, naming it a leading foreign-policy priority when he succeeded Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader and prime minister in March 2025. Carney travelled to Iqaluit, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, Greenland’s western neighbor across the Davis Strait, after whistlestops in Britain and France on the same March 2025 junket.
“Canada is strong when we recognize Indigenous peoples as the original stewards of this land,” Carney said in March 2025.
Four months earlier, Canada released its plan to open a consulate in Greenland, as well as another in Anchorage, Alaska as part of a new Arctic-focused foreign policy — something Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand took special care to emphasize while in Nuuk last week.
“I am underscoring that opening this consulate has been part of our intentions in our Arctic foreign policy for some time,” she said. But Anand acknowledged that in this moment, the move is also meant to demonstrate that Canada can play a role in defending Greenland’s values and sovereignty. “It also is a show of support for Greenlanders during a time in their long history, where they are feeling a sense of anxiety and concern.”

6 February
Canada and France open Greenland consulates in show of Denmark support
Founding of diplomatic outposts in Nuuk comes after US made efforts to secure control of Arctic island
Canada and France are to open diplomatic consulates in the capital of Greenland on Friday, showing support for their Nato ally Denmark and the Arctic island after US efforts to secure control of the semi-autonomous Danish territory.
Canada’s foreign minister, Anita Anand, was travelling to Nuuk to inaugurate the consulate, which officials say also could help boost cooperation on issues such as the climate crisis and Inuit rights. She was joined by Canada’s Indigenous governor general, Mary Simon.

25-29 January
Arctic security expert says the world needs to look at Greenland from America’s point of view
A superpower contest is ruthless. ‘This is the ruthlessness that Europe doesn’t get; how ruthless America is, and superpowers always are’
By Donna Kennedy-Glans
(National Post) U.K.-based polar security expert Tim Reilly suggests we take the president at his word, even if we don’t agree with him. And (while acknowledging that Trump doesn’t always act rationally or predictably), at least try to consider Greenland’s sovereignty and polar security from the perspective of America, one global superpower, doing battle with China, the other superpower.
If you control the Arctic region, you control two oceans and three continents, Tim enthuses, explaining with not only words but wide hand gestures: “You’ve got the Pacific, you’ve got the Atlantic, you’ve got the North American continent, and you’ve got the whole of Eurasia. So you’ve got the biggest populations in the world, the biggest countries in the world, the greatest technologies in the world, the best transportation networks in the world, the best infrastructure in the world. You get it?”
I get it. Greenland gives America access to the entire northern hemisphere.
“So, it’s China and America; it’s not Russia,” he concludes, and it’s about their powers, “not only military, but it’s ownership of space, ownership of the service sector, ownership of resources, and then ownership of territories where those all come together.”

25 January
Trump’s sudden retreat on Greenland shows that limits still exist
It remains to be seen what lasting damage the episode has done, particularly to how other members of NATO regard and trust the United States.
(WaPo) In this case, it took a combination of pressures: a unified front of opposition from America’s transatlantic allies, a thumbs-down from the financial markets at the prospect of a tariff war and a lack of enthusiasm from normally acquiescent Republicans in Congress. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), for instance, had downplayed the talk of military action as a negotiating strategy on the president’s part, aimed at drawing more attention to Greenland’s strategic importance.
the president swerved from the brink and announced the “framework of a future deal” after meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
But that framework, still under negotiation, does not include the U.S. taking possession of the icy island, a self-governing territory of Denmark. Nor is it clear that it will give the U.S. anything that was not already available, or nearly so, through renegotiation of previous agreements stretching back three-quarters of a century.

24 January
Trump tells The Post ‘We’ll have everything we want’ in plan to gain sovereignty over Greenland base areas
(NY Post) President Trump said the United States will gain sovereignty over land in Greenland where American bases are located, taking ownership of those areas.
“Yeah,” he told The Post in an exclusive Oval Office interview on Friday. “We’ll have everything we want. We have some interesting talks going on.”
The president, for months, has put pressure on Denmark to hand over the entire island, saying “nothing short of ownership” was acceptable.

22-23 January
European Leaders to Propose Greenland Investment and Arctic Security Plans
(NYT) Leaders from across the European Union held an emergency summit in Brussels to discuss Greenland and, more broadly, their fragile relationship with America.
Following an emergency summit on the state of the trans-Atlantic relationship, European leaders announced that they would soon propose an investment package for Greenland and would direct part of a surge in security spending toward the Arctic.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union’s executive arm, unveiled the moves at a news conference early on Friday [23 January] morning in Brussels — part of a plan to smooth over relations with the United States, even as Europe works to make itself more independent of its increasingly volatile partner.
Ian Bremmer: Trump’s demands put Europe in FAFO territory
(GZERO Quick Take) Checking in from the 2026 World Economic Forum in Davos, Ian breaks down a deepening crisis in the transatlantic relationship as President Trump escalates pressure on Europe over Greenland.
With European leaders already stretched by the war in Ukraine, economic underperformance, and questions about US reliability, Trump’s renewed insistence that the United States must own Greenland has become a defining test of whether Europe can push back, or whether it fractures under pressure.
… As Ian explains, the stakes go far beyond trade disputes or Arctic security: “Trump is coming to Davos to meet with a lot of European leaders at a time when he is threatening to rip up the transatlantic alliance and to engage in undermining the territorial integrity of one of its closest, albeit small, allies. Now, if that’s the way this ends up, it’s the end of NATO.”
Ian also unpacks his framework for understanding Trump’s foreign policy approach: FAFO vs. TACO, and why countries that can credibly push back fare far better than those that can’t.
Ian breaks down what Greenland reveals about leverage, alliance politics, and whether Europe is capable of acting as a unified power in a rapidly fragmenting global order.
As Ian explains, the stakes go far beyond trade disputes or Arctic security: “Trump is coming to Davos to meet with a lot of European leaders at a time when he is threatening to rip up the transatlantic alliance and to engage in undermining the territorial integrity of one of its closest, albeit small, allies. Now, if that’s the way this ends up, it’s the end of NATO.”

21-22 January
Trump declaration of Greenland framework deal met with scepticism as doubts persist
(The Guardian) Nato chief Mark Rutte says there is ‘a lot of work to be done’, as some Danish MPs voice concern at Greenland apparently being sidelined in US president’s talks
Trump’s claim of forthcoming deal with Nato over Greenland is ‘not real’, Danish lawmakers say – live
One Greenlandic member of Denmark’s parliament says the military alliance has no mandate to negotiate anything about the Arctic island’s sovereignty or mineral rights Trump walks back Greenland tariffs threat, citing vague ‘deal’ over territory
Greenlandic lawmaker says Nato has no mandate to negotiate nation’s status or mineral rights
Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, a Greenlandic member of the Danish parliament, wrote on Facebook Wednesday night that, despite Donald Trump’s claim to have struck an agreement over her homeland with Nato, the military alliance has no mandate to negotiate anything about Greenland. “Nothing about us, without us,” she wrote.
Amid rumors that some sort of mineral deal might have been discussed by Trump and Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary-general, in Davos, Chemnitz Larsen called the idea that Nato should have anything to say about Greenland’s sovereignty or minerals “completely out of the question.”
Danish MP says deal Trump claims to have struck over Greenland is ‘definitely not a deal’
In an interview with Sky News on Wednesday, a member of Denmark’s parliament, Sascha Faxe, has suggested that the deal Donald Trump claims to have struck with Nato over Greenland is “not real”.
“The thing is, there can’t be a deal without having Greenland as part of the negotiations, first of all,” Faxe said.
Al Gore suggests stock market drop pushed Trump to back down from threat to seize Greenland
Al Gore, who is two years younger than Donald Trump and a good deal more coherent even 26 years after he was denied the presidency by the US supreme court, told CNN at Davos that it was likely the sharp drop in stocks that had scared Trump into backing down from his threats to use force to seize Greenland.
Trump backs down on Greenland and cancels tariff threat after NATO agrees to future Arctic deal
(AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday scrapped the tariffs that he threatened to impose on eight European nations to press for U.S. control over Greenland, pulling a dramatic reversal shortly after insisting he wanted to get the island “including right, title and ownership.”
In a post on his social media site, Trump said he had agreed with the head of NATO on a “framework of a future deal” on Arctic security, potentially defusing tension that had far-reaching geopolitical implications.

Trump Assails Europe and Demands Control of Greenland
(NYT) Trump in Davos: President Trump used a speech at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Wednesday to criticize Europe and cast the world as almost entirely reliant on the United States for peace and prosperity, saying. “Without us, most of the countries don’t even work,” he said. Mr. Trump also said that the United States “won’t use force” to seize Greenland but that “we will remember” if the world did not cooperate. Read more ›
Trump steps up demand to annex Greenland but rules out using force
Donald Trump has stepped up his demand to annex Greenland in an extraordinary speech in Davos, but said the US would not use force to seize what he called the “big, beautiful piece of ice”.
Addressing thousands of business and political leaders at the World Economic Form in the Swiss ski resort, the US president said he was “seeking immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States”.
“I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force. All the US is asking for is a place called Greenland,” he said. “You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative. Or you can say no and we will remember.”
Referring to the US record in the second world war as a justification for his demand, Trump…said Denmark had been overrun by Germany “after just six hours of fighting”, prompting the US to intervene “at great cost and expense”. He insisted that only the US was now fit to defend “this enormous, unsecured island”.

20 January
Europe condemns Trump’s ‘new colonialism’ as Greenland crisis grows
European leaders have lined up to condemn Donald Trump’s “new colonialism” and warn that the continent was facing a crossroads as the US president said there was no going back on his goal of controlling Greenland.
After weeks of aggressive threats by Trump to seize the vast Arctic island, which is a largely autonomous part of Denmark, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said on Tuesday he preferred “respect to bullies” and the “rule of law to brutality”.
Macron told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that now was “not a time for new imperialism or new colonialism”, criticising the “useless aggressivity” of Trump’s pledge to levy tariffs on countries that opposed a US takeover of Greenland.
US president says there is ‘no going back’ on goal of controlling Arctic territory as Emmanuel Macron leads European resistance

19 January
Trump Links His Push for Greenland to Not Winning Nobel Peace Prize
In a text, President Trump told Norway’s prime minister that he no longer felt obliged to “think purely of Peace” and that the U.S. needed the island for global security.
Trump Is Pushing the U.S.-Europe Alliance Onto a Precipice
As President Trump tries to coerce European leaders over Greenland, they are pondering the unthinkable: Is an 80-year-old alliance doomed?

18 January
Trump’s Greenland Threats Will Boomerang on America
By Wolfgang Ischinger, a former German ambassador to Washington and chairman of the Munich Security Conference.
(NYT) … There is no need to speculate about worst-case scenarios from such a possible confrontation: the most likely outcome is bad enough. As Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has warned, an attack on Greenland would be the end of NATO. That would rob the United States of an unbeatable web of allies, offer rifts for our common enemies to exploit and eradicate the alliance’s collective moral high ground that has helped project American soft power across Europe and the world for decades. In short, it would make America weaker, not safer.
Greenland is not a marginal issue for Europeans. Threats against it cut to the heart of the idea of Europe, of sovereignty, international law and trust. Key European leaders recently stressed they are united in their position that it is up to Denmark and Greenland to decide their own fate — and no one else. The potential for a crisis is real, and what is most confounding is that this would be a crisis that is entirely unnecessary and easily avoidable.

Melting ice may raise Greenland’s value. Trump’s fight may be just the start.
Trump has said he wants the territory because of its strategic location. Maps show how a melting Arctic is affecting geopolitics
(WaPo) The decline of Arctic sea ice since the 1980s
The Arctic is warming about four times faster than the rest of the globe, exposing natural resources, opening up potential shipping routes and prompting an increase in activity among military powers. The changing landscape has created a region ripe for opportunity — and potential conflict — factors that may play a role in President Donald Trump’s quest to obtain Greenland.
Though he has called climate change a “hoax,” part of the value Trump has described in the Danish autonomous territory’s location is a result of the environmental shifts.

Letters from an American January 17, 2026
Heather Cox Richardson
After the extraordinary pushback on President Donald J. Trump’s bizarre demand for Greenland, he has responded with what economist Paul Krugman called “a howl of frustration on the part of a mad dictator who has just realized that he can’t send in the Marines.”
In a long screed this morning, Trump’s social media account said the president is placing tariffs of 10% on all goods from the countries currently protecting Greenland after February 1, and that the tariffs will increase to 25% on June 1. The post says the tariffs will be in effect “until such time as a Deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.”
This post is bonkers on many levels. On the most basic: where is he thinking he’s going to find the money for “the complete and total purchase of Greenland?” And besides, the countries involved—Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom—are all U.S. allies. Economist Justin Wolfers notes this trade war will include the entire European Union, for “[a] trade war with one EU country is a trade war with the entire EU.”
The post also makes explicit that Trump is trying to use tariffs not to nurture the American economy but to force other countries to do his bidding. The question of whether his tariff wars are constitutional because they address what he claims is an economic emergency is currently before the Supreme Court. Two lower courts have found that the president does not have the power to levy the sweeping tariffs he has been announcing. Today’s tariff announcement does not refer at all to economic need but rather is about economic coercion.
Finally, in its insistence that only the U.S. can “protect” Greenland, the screed echoed Russian president Vladimir Putin’s promises to “protect” Ukraine. Ignoring the reality that Greenland is part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the world’s strongest defense alliance, it said that Greenland and Denmark, of which Greenland is a part, “currently have two dogsleds as protection, one added recently.” It also added that the protection Trump insists only U.S. ownership of Greenland can provide might also include “the possible protection of Canada.”
Trump announces tariffs on European countries opposing Greenland takeover
The move sparked anger from longtime U.S. allies that have been sending Trump a message that the Danish territory is not for sale.
(WaPo) The United States will impose tariffs on countries that have sent troops to Greenland in recent days, President Donald Trump said Saturday, dramatically escalating his effort to acquire the Danish territory despite assertions from Greenland and Denmark that the Arctic island is not for sale.
“After Centuries, it is time for Denmark to give back — World Peace is at stake!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

16 January
What China’s ‘alignment’ with Carney on Greenland says of ‘new world order’
(Global news) Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday said he has found “much alignment” with Chinese President Xi Jinping in their views on Greenland, which some experts say is a signal of a new pragmatism in Canadian foreign policy while facing what Carney called a “new world order.”
“I had discussions with President Xi about the situation in Greenland, about our sovereignty in the Arctic, about the sovereignty of the people of Greenland and the people of Denmark. And I found much alignment of views in that regard,” Carney told reporters after his meeting with Xi.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s persistent threats about annexing Greenland — which is the autonomous territory of NATO member Denmark — has seen Canada find common ground with China, a country that Carney last year described as the biggest threat to Canada’s security.

15 January
European troops arrive in Greenland as talks with US highlight ‘disagreement’ over island’s future
(AP) — Troops from several European countries continued to arrive in Greenland on Thursday in a show of support for Denmark as talks between representatives of Denmark, Greenland and the U.S. highlighted “fundamental disagreement” over the future of the Arctic island.
Denmark announced it would increase its military presence in Greenland on Wednesday as foreign ministers from Denmark and Greenland were preparing to meet with White House representatives in Washington. Several European partners — including France, Germany, the U.K., Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands — started sending symbolic numbers of troops already on Wednesday or promised to do so in the following days.
The troop movements were intended to portray unity among Europeans and send a signal to President Donald Trump that an American takeover of Greenland is not necessary as NATO together can safeguard the security of the Arctic region amid rising Russian and Chinese interest.

14 January
Trump insists Greenland is crucial for national security after Denmark talks
Talks fail to solve ‘fundamental disagreement’ over Arctic island controlled by Copenhagen
(The Guardian) Donald Trump reiterated on Wednesday that the US needs Greenland and that Denmark cannot be relied upon to protect the island, even as he said that “something will work out” with respect to the future governance of the Danish overseas territory.
The remarks, which came after a high-stakes meeting between US, Danish and Greenlandic officials, indicate that fundamental differences remain between how Washington, Copenhagen and Nuuk see the political future of the island.
“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.
The Danish foreign minster said earlier on Wednesday that Trump remains intent on “conquering” Greenland as the talks with US officials failed to solve a “fundamental disagreement” that has led to unprecedented tensions between Washington and a Nato ally.
It was “absolutely not necessary” for the US to seize Greenland, a largely self-governing part of the Danish kingdom, the Danish foreign minster, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said late on Wednesday.
“We didn’t manage to change the American position. It’s clear that the president has this wish of conquering Greenland. And we made it very, very clear that this is not in the interest of the kingdom.”
… Trump first raised the idea of a takeover of Greenland in 2019, during his first term, but has ramped up his rhetoric significantly since returning to the White House last year, saying the US would take it “one way or the other”.
He has jolted the EU and Nato by refusing to rule out military force to seize the strategically important, mineral-rich island, which is covered by many of the protections offered by the two organisations because Denmark belongs to both.
Rasmussen and Motzfeldt initially sought the talks with Rubio but the meeting took place at the White House after Vance asked to attend and then to host the talks.
Greenland and Denmark have repeatedly pointed out that a 1951 bilateral agreement already allowed the US to vastly expand its military presence on the island.
… Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, told a joint press conference with his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, on Tuesday that the island would not be owned or governed by Washington.
“If we have to choose between the US and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark, Nato and the EU,” Nielsen said, adding that Greenland’s “goal and desire is peaceful dialogue, with a focus on cooperation”.
Frederiksen said it had not been easy for Denmark to “stand up to completely unacceptable pressure from our closest ally” but the fact was that “borders cannot be changed by force, and that small countries should not fear large countries”.

Why Trump’s Greenland threats alarm Europe (video)
(GZERO Europe), Carl Bildt examines the implications of President Trump’s threats to take over Greenland and why they alarm Europe.
“It is unheard of, remarkable, and should be unthinkable,” Bildt says, for the United States to try to acquire “the territory of an ally against the wish of that particular country.”
Bildt highlights recent talks in Washington between US, Danish, and Greenlandic officials, where the Danish foreign minister noted a “fundamental disagreement” over the future of Greenland, showing the dispute is far from resolved. While the risk of near-term military action is likely “off the table,” he warns the issue will not fade quietly.
The consequences could be profound. Undermining territorial integrity would damage NATO and could embolden Vladimir Putin. In Bildt’s words, this is “playing with fire.”

13 January
America Doesn’t Need Greenland. It Needs a Reality Check
Bloomberg Editorial Board
Takeaways by Bloomberg AI
The White House has yet to offer a good explanation for why the US needs to control Greenland.
The economic argument for controlling Greenland makes little sense due to the difficulty and expense of extracting its mineral riches.
Most of the US’s needs in Greenland could be addressed under the current treaty with Denmark and Greenland, or through additional negotiations.
For all the bluster and juvenile memes surrounding American ambitions in Greenland, the White House has yet to offer a good explanation for why the US needs to control the massive Arctic territory. That’s because there isn’t one. Officials who know better should press to end this ill-considered campaign before more damage is done.

12 January
Trump is ready to grab Greenland. The EU should move first – and offer it membership
Robert Habeck and Andreas Raspotnik
(The Guardian) The US president’s threats to the territory show Europe needs a new strategy for its far north: one based on cooperation, not domination

9 January
Trump ramps up Greenland threats and says US will intervene ‘whether they like it or not’
US president doubles down on threats to acquire territory at White House meeting with oil and gas executives
(The Guardian) Speaking at a meeting with oil and gas executives at the White House, the US president justified his comments by saying: “If we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland. And we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.”
He added: “So we’re going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way.”
Trump’s latest comments come amid escalating tensions between the US and its Nato allies, including Denmark, over his administration’s repeated attempts to take control of the largely autonomous Arctic territory. Trump’s posture has been firmly rejected by Denmark and Greenland.
Despite admonishments from Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen, who recently said that a US attack on Greenland would mean the end of “Nato and therefore post second world war security”, Trump has continued to insist that he supports the alliance.
… Meanwhile, Greenlanders have repeatedly expressed their refusal to be part of the US, with 85% of the population rejecting the idea, according to a 2025 poll. Polling shows only 7% of Americans support the idea of a US military invasion of the territory.

The Hole in Trump’s Rationale for Acquiring Greenland
The office dedicated to countering China and Russia in the Arctic has been axed.
By Isaac Stanley-Becker and Vivian Salama
(The Atlantic) The administration’s intense interest in acquiring Greenland, by force if necessary, might appear to be a natural outgrowth of the Pentagon’s work. Instead, it’s a clear repudiation of it. Not only has the demand for Greenland infuriated the same European allies on which the Arctic strategy depends, the Pentagon office itself has been quietly shuttered. In sum, even as the administration says it needs Greenland to advance U.S. security interests in the Arctic, it has closed the office set up to advance U.S. security interests in the Arctic.
Trump’s repeated insistence on obtaining Greenland has prompted a furious reaction from European governments. In the long run, that may leave Washington less able to counter Russian and Chinese maneuvering in the Arctic—if that was indeed Trump’s aim in the first place. The president recently told The Atlantic that Greenland is “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships” (a claim that former officials described as unsupported by evidence), but the administration’s National Security Strategy, issued at the end of last year, seemed to shy from competition with U.S. adversaries in favor of maximizing economic gains. The document envisioned “strategic stability with Russia” and called for a “genuinely mutually advantageous economic relationship with Beijing.” It made no mention of the Arctic.

2025

23 December
Bob Rae: Greenland Annexation No Joke
Maps help explain things
As the Arctic melts, Trump’s declaration of the annexation of Greenland as a key objective is no joke. The appointment of Louisiana Governor Landry as Special Envoy with the job of “making Greenland a part of the United States” without discussing with Denmark or Greenland governments leaves no room for doubt.
International law, or an opinion of the International Court of Justice will mean nothing to President Trump.
Canada is directly affected by this decision. The US has always rejected our claim to the Northwest Passage. Our territorial sovereignty means even less to President Trump.
This announcement is in line with the National Security Strategy, just as surely as blowing up the boats in international waters and impounding oil freighters off the coast of Venezuela.

26 March
JD Vance will visit Greenland, but a controversial US trip just got a lot more low-profile
CNN — US Vice President JD Vance has now said he will join his wife Usha on her highly contentious visit to Greenland later this week, a decision that added fuel to the diplomatic fire while revealing major changes to the United States’ itinerary on the Arctic island.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Tuesday accused the US of putting “unacceptable pressure” on Greenland, the autonomous Danish territory coveted by the Trump administration. The White House had previously said that the second lady would visit the island to attend one of the world’s foremost dog-sledding races.
Vance then appeared to ramp up that pressure by announcing that he would accompany Usha to Greenland because he “didn’t want her to have all this fun by herself.”
But beneath the bravado lay a significant change of plan. The second lady had been set to watch Greenland’s national dogsled race and visit several parts of the island, but the Vances are now only set to travel to the Pituffik Space Base, a US military facility on the island’s western fringe on Friday.
Whereas the White House said earlier that Usha Vance’s trip would “celebrate Greenlandic culture and unity,” a statement from the vice president’s office Tuesday only made mention of the Pituffik base, saying that the Vances would be receive a briefing on Arctic security issues and meet with US service members.
Also absent from the later statement was mention of Mike Waltz, the national security adviser who had been set to join the second lady on her visit. Waltz has since become embroiled in an extraordinary security breach after it emerged he had added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine to a Signal group chat where senior officials planned military strikes in Yemen.
On Wednesday, Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen welcomed the change of plans from the US.
“I actually think it’s very positive that the Americans are canceling their visit to Greenlandic society. Instead, they will visit their own base, Pituffik, and we have nothing against that,” Rasmussen told Danish public radio, DR.

21 January
Greenland During Trump 2.0: Is America Poised for an Historic Arctic Territorial Expansion?
(Arctic Institute) It was just over five years ago, in August 2019, that President Trump first proposed purchasing Greenland from tiny Denmark, thereby completing a centuries-long project to expand and consolidate American power in the North American Arctic that began with the Alaska purchase in 1867, which ended Russia’s colonization of the far northwest of North America. Trump’s unsolicited offer made waves around the world as members of the diplomatic and national security community grappled with this sudden, unexpected prospect of an American Arctic territorial expansion, which would have been the first since 1867, when Secretary of State William H. Seward successfully engineered his vision for America to become a world power through successive expansions from the tropics to the polar region. Trump’s initial Greenland proposal was quickly and soundly rejected by both the Danes and Greenlanders, the latter famously responding, “We’re open for business, not for sale.” Most observers were just as pessimistic about William H. Seward’s nineteenth century Alaska purchase, which, like Trump’s 2019 proposal to purchase Greenland, was widely dismissed as “folly,” though it is now universally recognized for Seward’s strategic prescience. …

2019

21 August
Trump’s Interest in Buying Greenland Seemed Like a Joke. Then It Got Ugly.
(NYT) In the latest only-in-Trumpland episode skating precariously along the line between farce and tragedy, the president of the United States on Wednesday attacked the prime minister of Denmark because she will not sell him Greenland — and found the very notion “absurd.”
Never mind that much of the rest of the world thought it sounded absurd as well. Amid a global laughing fit, Mr. Trump got his back up and lashed out, as he is wont to do, and called the prime minister “nasty,” one of his favorite insults, particularly employed against women who offend him, like Hillary Clinton and Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex.
All of which might be written off as just another odd moment in a presidency unlike any other. Except that attacking Denmark was not enough for the president. He decided to expand his target list to include NATO because, as he pointed out, Denmark is a member of the Atlantic alliance. And he chose to do this just two days before leaving Washington to travel to an international summit in France, which also happens to be a NATO member.
… To be sure, Greenland has increasingly absorbed American policymakers lately because of the opening of the Arctic with warming weather. American officials have talked about how to counter China, which has expressed interest in expanding ties with Greenland.