With Donald Trump Jr. making a surprise visit to Greenland this week, President-elect Donald Trump’s rhetoric has become more serious about… Purchase of Denmark’s territory in the Arctic.
The president-elect did not rule out using military coercion to control Greenland at a press conference held at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. “No, I can’t assure you either,” Trump said when asked if he ruled out using military or economic coercion to control Greenland. He continued: “We need it for national security. This is for the free world. I’m talking about protecting the free world.”
Meanwhile, Danish leaders remain adamant that the Arctic region is not for sale. “We have a clear interest in the United States playing a big role and not Russia or other countries. But Greenland is for the people of Greenland,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters on Tuesday.
The Danish Prime Minister sends a clear message to Trump: Greenland is not for sale
Houses on the coast in Nuuk, Greenland. (Marlie Miller/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Greenlanders are due to vote later this year whether they want to remain part of Denmark or not. The strategic island is located at a regional crossroads, as the United States, China and Russia compete to control the melting Arctic region.
Denmark and thus Greenland NATO Allies. Article 5 of the NATO Charter states that any military attack on a NATO Ally requires a military response from the rest of the Alliance.
He added, “I do not think it is useful to talk about the implications of Article 5 because the United States will not actually use force against its NATO ally. There are many reasons why that will never happen.” Ian Bremmer, founder and president of Eurasia Group, told Fox News.
“It doesn’t mean you don’t take what the president says seriously, because the fact that he’s making these threats doesn’t change the extent to which America’s allies feel they can count on the United States going forward… It undermines the leverage that the United States has in the country,” Bremer continued: “It brings us closer to the law of the jungle.”
US Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman and distinguished guests stand in front of the radar dome of the 23rd Space Operations Detachment 1 at Pitovik Space Base, Greenland, April 5, 2023. (US Space Force)
Trump first began talking about buying Greenland in 2019 because it contains about a quarter of the world’s rare earth minerals, needed for all electronics, semiconductor manufacturing, the defense industry and the new clean energy economy.
More recently, Sherry Goodman, who served as the Pentagon’s first Under Secretary of Defense for Environmental Security in the 1990s, wrote a book on the strategic and national security consequences of climate change entitled Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Fight for Global Security. “
Goodman has seen firsthand how important Greenland is US Army.
Trump steps up plans to seize Greenland after resident pleads: ‘Denmark is using the US’
Donald Trump Jr., right, poses for a photo upon his arrival in Nuuk, Greenland, on Tuesday, January 7, 2025. (Emil Stach/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
“We have long had a military base in northern Greenland to track missiles or satellites coming from the former Soviet Union, and now Russia,” Goodman said. “Because of climate change, getting around Greenland and traveling to Greenland has become much easier.”
Then-President Harry Truman wanted to buy Greenland after World War II to expel the Soviets from the Arctic. During the Cold War, the Arctic was the most direct route for strategic nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union using long-range bombers and ballistic missiles. The GIUK Gap east of Greenland is a huge access point for Russian operations in the Atlantic. Greenland became a major location for early warning networks, and today is home to the US military’s northernmost facility, Space Force Base Pitovik, which contains a significant portion of the global network’s missile warning and space surveillance sensors.
A new Pitovik Space Base sign is displayed at the headquarters building at Pitovik Space Base, Greenland, on April 6, 2023. Pitovik Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base, was renamed on April 6, 2023. (US Space Force)
China’s ambitions in the Arctic have increased in recent years. In 2018, China laid out plans to build infrastructure and develop shipping lines opened up by climate change. State-owned companies have made offers to buy land in both Iceland and Greenland, but so far to no avail.
Temperatures in the Arctic are rising four times faster than in the rest of the world, making the rare earth minerals they contain more accessible.
“In this rush for resources, the United States, NATO and NATO want to ensure that China and Russia Don’t come to that. Goodman said China has a history of using alternative science and investigation as a means to access and learn about areas in the Arctic.
Snow-capped mountains up to 1,000 meters high can be seen near the Kings Bay research station in New York Alesund on the island of Spitsbergen, Norway, on April 10, 2015. Arctic research stations in China, Norway, Germany and France, now operate on the lands of a former mining site in the Svalbard archipelago. , which is operated throughout the year. (Jens Buettner/Image Alliance via Getty Images)
Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh was asked about Greenland at a Defense Department news conference on Wednesday. “I certainly won’t make assumptions. I think this is something the next administration should talk to,” Singh said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken responded to a question about Greenland at a news conference in Paris on Wednesday. “The idea that has been expressed about Greenland is clearly not a good idea,” Blinken said. “But perhaps more importantly, it’s clear that it’s not going to happen. So maybe we shouldn’t waste a lot of time talking about it.”
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