Donald Trump and his Greenland Project to Make America Bigger, As Well as Greater, Again
President-elect Donald Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, on 22 December to renew his 2019 desire, considered “absurd” at the time by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, to add Greenland to his growing shopping list, which has since come to include his northern neighbour, Canada, and the Panama Canal Zone, much further to the south. In his post, Trump stated that the US would seek “ownership and control of Greenland” for the “purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world.” In response, Múte Bourup Egede, Greenland’s Prime Minister since April 2021 and leader of the left-wing, pro-independence Inuit Ataqatigiit (Inuit Community) party, confirmed that his country “is not for sale and never will be for sale.”
For various reasons, it is not possible to predict the extent of Trump’s transactions on the world stage on 20 January 2025 and thereafter. But we can take this opportunity to put together a description of Greenland in an attempt to better understand his motives behind acquiring a massive chunk of real estate, albeit for the entire nation rather than just his own property empire. He is by no means the first American politician to have coveted Greenland, as back in 1867 US Secretary of State William Seward had also considered annexing the island.
Greenland is the largest island in the world, extending about 1,660 miles from north to south and more than 650 miles from east to west at its widest point. Along with its offshore islands, Greenland occupies a total land area of 836, 330 square miles, almost 80 per cent of which is occupied by ice cap and glaciers. The Greenland Ice Sheet, only outsized by its counterpart in Antarctica, covers more than 700,000 square miles and is the largest ice mass in the Northern Hemisphere. Two-thirds of the island lies within the Arctic Circle, and temperatures reach above freezing only in the month of July.
A permanent population of just 57,000 makes it one of the most sparsely populated regions of the planet. Around 88 per cent of the population are Inuit or mixed Danish and Inuit, with the remainder of European descent- mainly Danish. Most of the population is clustered along the southwest shoreline, with scattered communities elsewhere along the coast.
Although geographically a part of North America and dominating the North Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe, Greenland has been politically aligned with Europe through most of its recorded history. The Inuit are believed to have crossed over from North America to northwest Greenland, via the islands of the Canadian Arctic, in six successive waves between around 2500 BC and the 12th century AD. The Vikings first reached Greenland in the 10th century, when, in 982 AD, Erik the Red, a Norseman endowed with red beard and hair and reputed to be hot-headed, was exiled to the island for three years after murdering a neighbour in Iceland. He recognised the potential of the island, somewhat misleadingly naming it Greenland to increase its allure, and returned in 985 with a fleet of 25 ships, only 14 of which reached their destination. Thus began the settlement of the island. Erik’s son, Leif Eriksson, then brought Christianity in the 11th century. These early Norse settlements disappeared by the 15th century, probably due to the cooling effects of the Little Ice Age. Settlement only resumed following the arrival of the missionary Hans Egede in 1721, who founded a Lutheran mission near the site of the present-day capital of Nuuk, which was first known as Godthåb, or Good Hope, before being renamed in 1979. The Inuit are consequently evangelical Lutherans.
Greenland was a colony of Denmark until 1953, when it was unilaterally designated a district of the Kingdom of Denmark. The island came under American protection between 1941 and 1945, during the German occupation of Denmark. In 1951, a defence agreement between Denmark and the US provided for a permanent American military presence at Thule Air Base in the northwest of the island, which is the northernmost base of the US Air Force. Thule Air Base was constructed between 1951 and 1953, and upgraded in 2004. It is now referred to as Pituffik Space Base. The facility hosts the 12th Space Warning Squadron, alongside other units, and provide a “Top of the World” vantage point as one of America’s most important ballistic missile early-warning defence systems.
Greenland achieved home rule in 1980, following a referendum the previous year which gave the territory its first government and a 31-seat parliament. Denmark retained control over constitutional affairs, defence, and foreign affairs. Greenlanders currently send two representatives to the Danish Parliament (Folketing). The island left the EU in February 1985, following a dispute over fishing quotas and in response to a ban on sealskin products, but remains a member of the EU’s Overseas Countries and Territories Association. Over 75 per cent of Greenlanders voted in another referendum in November 2008, seeking increased autonomy, greater control over their oil and mineral resources, and to ensure the recognition of the West Greenlandic dialect (Kalaallisut) as their official language. The Act in Greenland Self-Government that followed was signed into law in June 2009, making Greenland a self-governing overseas administrative division of Denmark.
Apart from its strategic location, Greenland is probably also attractive to Trump because of its rich mineral resources, which include oil, natural gas, diamonds, gold, platinum, iron ore, lead, zinc, molybdenum, uranium, and various other rare-earth minerals. The deleterious effects of global warming and the continued melting and shrinkage of the Greenland Ice Sheet, accompanied by rising sea levels have, however, prompted environmental concerns among Greenlanders. All new exploration for oil and natural gas was accordingly banned in 2021. The economy currently centres around fishing and fish processing, and hunting (sealing, whaling), with additional contributions from energy, minerals, and tourism.
Donald Trump’s territorial ambitions are unambiguous, but whether his dreams will be fulfilled are by no means clear. What we can be sure of, however, is that exciting times lie ahead come 20 January next year.
Ashis Banerjee