For months, U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants to take control of Greenland.
That rhetoric has returned in the aftermath of the U.S. military operation in Venezuela last weekend, which underscored Trump’s overall vision of American dominance over the Western Hemisphere.
Trump and the White House have since made clear that approach also extends to Greenland, which is a self-governing territory of Denmark, a NATO ally of the U.S. and Canada.
“The president has been very open and clear with all of you and with the world that he views it in the best interest of the United States to deter Russian and Chinese aggression in the Arctic region,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday.
Leavitt wouldn’t rule out possible U.S. military action to acquire Greenland, saying the administration was considering “all options” but that Trump’s “first option always has been diplomacy.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Wednesday that he’ll be meeting with Danish officials next week, and that it’s “always been” Trump’s intent to purchase Greenland, rather than acquire it by force.
“This is not new,” he said. “He talked about it in his first term, and he’s not the first U.S. president that has examined or looked at how we could acquire Greenland.”
Greenland and Denmark, as well as Canada and European allies, have reaffirmed this week that Greenland’s future must be decided by its people alone.
Here’s why Trump may be keen on acquiring Greenland, and why it’s an important strategic security asset no matter who’s in charge.
Greenland sits off the northeastern coast of Canada and is one of the largest land masses in the world.
About 80 per cent of the island lies within the Arctic Circle, with a vast ice sheet and protected lands.
Most of the population of 56,000 people, 90 per cent of which are Inuit, live along the southwestern coast of the territory, which includes the capital of Nuuk.
The Norse first arrived in Greenland around 982 AD and stayed there for centuries before disappearing for unclear reasons around 1500, according to the Visit Greenland tourism page.
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The colonial period is considered to have begun in 1721 when the Dano-Norwegian crown re-established contact and “in 1916, Denmark’s rights to Greenland were confirmed by the United States, as part of a deal that facilitated the American purchase of the Danish West Indies,” according to the Danish Institute for International Studies.
U.S. forces first set up in Greenland during the Second World War to ensure it didn’t fall into the hands of Nazi Germany, and to preserve North Atlantic shipping lanes.
Today, the island is home to several military and research bases. While most of those are Danish-owned and run, the U.S. military operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland.
That base was built under the Defense of Greenland Treaty signed by the U.S. and Denmark in 1951, which supports missile warning, missile defence and space surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.
The U.S. also gained expanded access to Danish military and air bases under a military agreement signed in 2023. Danish lawmakers approved a bill last June to allow U.S. military bases on Danish soil, widening that agreement.
“There are no advantages to be gained” for U.S. national security by taking over Greenland, said Andrea Charron, director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba.
“In fact, there is significant damage that can occur” to NATO and the overall western alliance, she added, warning that “rupture” could be permanent.
Denmark is already moving to strengthen its military presence around Greenland and in the wider North Atlantic as part of an overall defence boost. The country is one of NATO’s top spenders with 3.22 per cent of its GDP dedicated to defence this year — matching the U.S.
The U.S. has already begun making moves with regard to Greenland, however. In June, the Pentagon announced that Trump had ordered that Greenland be shifted from the U.S. European Command area of responsibility to U.S. Northern Command.
That was done without consultation with European allies, Charron noted.
The closer focus on Greenland’s security comes as new access points through the Arctic open up thanks to thinning ice fuelled by climate change.
While Canada, the U.S., Russia, Denmark and other Arctic states have claim to exclusive economic zones within their respective portions of the Arctic, the northernmost area of the world remains unclaimed by any one power, particularly around the North Pole.
In 2018, China declared itself a “near-Arctic state” in an effort to gain more influence in the region, and has announced plans to build a “Polar Silk Road” of economic links with countries around the world.
Russia, meanwhile, has been restoring and expanding its Arctic military bases and airfields since 2014, while seeking to exert its own influence in the region.
Chinese and Russian military incursions into Arctic waters, including off Canada’s northern coast, have increased in recent years. NATO members have sought to boost their Arctic presence accordingly, fuelled by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Russia already has more than 50 per cent of the Arctic by population and territory,” Charron said. “Russia and China both have missiles that can hit targets in North America. So Denmark and Greenland are really important for that domain awareness and anti-missile defence.”
Canada has prioritized Arctic security and sovereignty both as it rebuilds its military capabilities and in its foreign policy.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand is set to open a new Canadian consulate in Nuuk early this year as part of that strategy.
Greenland is also home to several critical mineral reserves that are attractive to global powers racing to secure them for semiconductors, batteries and magnets.
In particular, Greenland is a rich source of so-called rare earth minerals — a key component of smartphones, computers and other high-tech gadgets — with reserves of 1.5 million metric tons, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
That’s more than Canada’s total reserves but well below global leader China.
China also dominates rare earth mining and production, while Greenland has no such capabilities in place.
A 2021 ban on uranium mining by Greenland’s government over environmental protection concerns effectively barred mining for rare earths, of which uranium is a byproduct.
Trump has made clear he’s willing to overturn similar laws in the U.S., where he has expanded mining and oil production in protected lands.
Emma Ashford, a senior fellow with the Reimagining U.S. Grand Strategy program at the Stimson Center, said Trump’s focus on Venezuela’s oil reserves following the U.S. capture of President Nicolas Maduro offers clues to his foreign policy strategy.
“Trump appears to, in many ways, conflate the interests of America’s national security with American energy companies,” she said.
Ashford said Trump may use the successful Venezuela military operation to try and coerce Denmark to give up at least some control of Greenland — and could even increase pressure on Canada.
“I do think we will continue to see this pattern where military force is used as a signal to try and turn up the heat on places like Canada or Denmark,” she said.
— with files from Global’s Reggie Cecchini and The Associated Press
