Why Greenland?
Donald Trump hardly took a breath between crowing about his “victory” over Venezuela and revisiting his threats to take over Greenland. He’s been talking about Greenland—buying it, seizing it—since his first term. Since re-occupying the White House a year ago, he has obsessed about Greenland. Why?
Greenland has strategic importance for the United States, NATO, and Russia. It is critical for controlling the Atlantic approaches to the Arctic and vice versa. It is thought to be a repository for rare earth materials that are vital to the electronics and information technology industries, new battery developments that will extend the range of electronic vehicles, drones, fielded military equipment, etcetara. Lastly, talking about seizing control of Greenland from Denmark roils the NATO Alliance, and that is a huge benefit to Trump’s telephone pal in Moscow.
The last point is important.
Trump’s stated reason for seizing Greenland is that it is too important to America’s defense for America to not own it, which suggests that he thinks Denmark can’t defend it. Consider where a threat to Greenland might come from, other than from Trump. The only two countries that come to mind are Russia and China. Russia has a long Arctic Sea coastline and enormous interests in the region: oil and natural gas, fisheries, maritime rights and transit, air approaches, to name the obvious. China has less skin in the game but would very much like to use the Arctic as a short cut for shipping from Asia to European markets. They would also like a crack at resources lying under the Arctic sea. Greenland in friendly hands brings all that closer.
Greenland is, of course, a part of Denmark and has been for the last millennium. It is currently an autonomous territory of Denmark, under a Home Rule arrangement, with its own Parliament and Premier who exercises executive authority over matters specific to Greenland. It is integrated into the Danish and European economies, and its citizens enjoy full citizenship in Denmark and the European Union. Greenland falls under the defense umbrella of Denmark and NATO. The United States has had a military presence in Greenland since the 1940s.
The idea that Greenland is poorly defended is rubbish.
Trump’s actual knowledge of NATO policy, protocols, and capabilities might be challenged filling a teacup, but one would think somewhere in his brain trust of D list intellectuals, someone told him about Article 5, which says that attack on one NATO member is an attack on all NATO members. Articles 5, however, doesn’t mention what happens if one NATO member attacks another NATO member, because the alliance’s founders didn’t imagine Donald Trump or his man-crush on Vladimir Putin.
In the last 48 hours it’s turned out that invading Venezuela is very unpopular. Usually a successful military operation brings about a honeymoon, however brief. Apparently not in this case. Imagine what attacking Greenland/Denmark and effectively destroying the NATO alliance will do for his polling?
So, what does he get out of talking about taking over Greenland?
Let's state the obvious first off, he gets a distraction from Epstein. Every 1 and 0 spent on Greenland—or anything that isn’t Epstein—helps keep that wolf from the door.
I also think he genuinely gets a rush out of acting the tough guy. Trump is famously conflict averse when it means doing things in person. In spite of his “You’re fired!” brand when he played a tycoon on television, he routinely passed the buck to subordinates when it came to sacking employees. He’s shown the same tendencies in the White House when it comes to sacking cabinet officials and staff. When Trump comes face to face with people he’s demonized, he tends to gush over them, gets all handsy, and occasionally talks about falling in love. But give him a camera to scowl in front of, to thump his chest and make up juvenile insults, and he is Big Bad Leroy Trump.
He thinks there are resources under Greenland’s ice that businesses will pay a premium to get their hands on and he wants a taste of that money. The way to do that, in his real estate developer mind, is to own the property. He did make an offer to buy Greenland right? And they turned him down, right? So make them an offer they can’t refuse, right? Like Vito Corleone in The Godfather, or Paul Castellano (Gambino family) and Tony Salerno (Genovese family) in real life, whom Trump met through his mentor Roy Cohn, and who facilitated building contracts for his early endeavors in Manhattan. 1
But mostly, I think the answer lies with his main crush and telephone buddy, Vladimir Putin. Throughout his terms in office and the interregnum of the Biden years, Trump has had numerous telephone conversations with Putin, most of which are poorly documented if at all. Notably, during his infamous Helsinki meeting he confiscated notes taken by his translator. He also had a private meeting with Putin, with only Putin’s translator also attending. During a G-20 dinner in his first year in office he and Putin held a sidebar meeting with only Putin’s translator present and no memo of the conversation. There is no record of their private meeting in Anchorage in August, 2025, or of their conversation in “The Beast.” Its quite possible that Trump has had more interaction with Putin than most of the leaders of America’s traditional allies. It is alarming that most of their conversations are undocumented.
Its a now old and not particularly funny or wry joke that Putin is Trump’s case officer. It’s not funny because it is plausible.
Trump’s posture towards Greenland in no way benefits the United States. It is straining our relationship with all of NATO, not just Denmark. If Trump acts on his threats or amplifies the volume, he will unravel the most important alliance the United States and the free world has ever known. There is no upside for the United States.
But there is an upside for Putin, and for China’s Xi. A United States, isolated from its allies of the last 80 years, abandoning the rules-based order built in the wreckage of WWII, and focused on hegemony over an unwilling Western Hemisphere, is Putin’s wildest dream. Xi won’t have anything to complain about either.
Donald Trump will shatter the world we’ve known for the last 80 years, in order to skim profits (he hopes) from exploiting Greenland’s resources, to distract from the Epstein files, and to please and impress the axis of autocracy he aspires to join.
If his cheerleading squad in Congress lets him, if a cowed or bought media looks away, if voters don’t demand a course correction, that is.
It’s on us.
I refer readers to the extensive reporting done by Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice on Donald Trump’s frequents skirting of the law in New York since the 1970s. Also CNN’s reporting and City and State reporting.
With Trump controlling Greenland, he can threaten anything going through the Gap, and also put NATO on its heels.
Given the tenor of the NSS, that may be the point.
A few quibbles:
1) Denmark opened its colony in Greenland in the early 18th century, leaving them almost 800 years shy of owning it for a millennium.
2) If you dig into the sources on this exchange with the press, the reporters start asking about Greenland, or Cuba, or wherever. Trump even tells them initially "I don't want to talk about Greenland." This has become a game with the press covering him: ask Trump something outrageous and let him stew until he says something even more outrageous. You may also recognize this same phenomenon from earlier in his admin when the press kept asking him about a third term, he would make weak deflections, and observers would say "Trump was obsessed" with a third term.
3) I'm glad we agree about the strategic importance of Greenland. But I'm having difficulty following the rest of your logic. So Trump will do Putin's bidding and destroy NATO in order to get Greenland, which would lock Russia out of the global competition, in exchange for what? After all, Putin has already demonstrated Europe's inability to defend itself.