He threatened to impose 10 percent tariffs on European allies who oppose his goal of taking over the Arctic island, but then said at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he was backing off, and that he would not take over Greenland "by force" because it had been achieved "framework for a future agreement on Greenland".
Trump insists that his country needs Greenland for national security reasons and has not ruled out using military force to take it.
His demands were rejected by the leaders of Greenland and Denmark, whose island is a semi-autonomous territory.
But although American expansionism has regained momentum under Trump, the idea of America controlling Danish territory dates back long before the current president.
More than 100 years ago, Washington concluded the purchase of a group of Caribbean islands from Denmark - far from the Arctic cold of Greenland.
This is the story of how the Danish West Indies (Danish Antilles) became the US Virgin Islands and how a weakened European power ceded a portion of its overseas territory to the new power of the time.
What are the US Virgin Islands?
The US Virgin Islands, near but separate from the British Virgin Islands, are a US territory in the Caribbean, east of Puerto Rico.
With a population of 83.000, it consists of the main islands of St. John, St. Thomas, and St. Croix, as well as more than 40 islets and low sandbars.
Although most of the island's residents are American citizens, the territory is not fully integrated into Washington's political and legal framework.
Residents, therefore, cannot vote in presidential elections unless they move to the state and only selected parts of the US Constitution apply to them.
Most of the island's inhabitants trace their roots back to enslaved Africans, who were forcibly brought to the region during the transatlantic slave trade to work on sugar plantations.
Watch the video: Why Trump wants Greenland so much
Why did the US Virgin Islands belong to Denmark?
For centuries, the islands were a Danish colony known as the Danish West Indies.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain, England, France, and the Netherlands periodically contested control of these islands, an area often used as a haven by Caribbean pirates.
In 1684, Denmark took control of St. John's and established sovereignty over it.
Not long before that, she did the same with St. Thomas.
Denmark then began to build larger sugar plantations on the islands, exploiting enslaved Africans brought to the islands by European traders.
Why was America interested in the islands?
In the second half of the 19th century, things began to change.
Denmark watched its power on the world stage wane, at the same time as America began to emerge from the Civil War.
Then, the administration of President Andrew Johnson wanted to expand American influence while eliminating European influence on the continent.
His Secretary of State William Henry Seward set his sights on the Danish West Indies as part of his plan for peaceful territorial expansion.
The port on St. Thomas was of particular importance to American strategists, in part because it was seen as an ideal base for controlling the Caribbean.
At the same time, the price of sugar began to fall and Denmark began to take the position that these islands were more of a burden than a benefit to it.
This led the two governments to begin negotiating the possible sale of the islands, and in 1867 they signed an agreement that the United States would take them over in exchange for $7,5 million worth of gold, which was $164 million in today's dollars.
That transaction, however, was not realized.
Just a year later, Washington did manage to expand its influence elsewhere, as it finalized the purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire for about seven million dollars.
It was Seward's gamble that led to much criticism, and even ridicule, from those in the US who considered it a mere frozen land without any economic or strategic importance.
The controversy surrounding the Alaska purchase led to the U.S. Congress ultimately not ratifying the treaty to purchase the Danish West Indies.
World War I and the purchase of the US Virgin Islands
The purchase was not attempted again for almost half a century.
It was only with the outbreak of World War I and the threat of Germany seizing the strategically well-positioned islands from Denmark that the odds finally began to tilt in favor of the United States.
Europe was growing weary of the long trench war, and the Allies were eager for America to enter the war on their side to defeat Germany and the rest of the Central Powers.
Then-President Woodrow Wilson failed to win over Congress or the general public regarding entering the conflict.
But the growing fear of attacks by German submarines, which instilled fear and trembling in American merchant and passenger ships, would change that discourse.
The sinking of the Lusitania in 1915, a passenger liner hit by a German submarine off the Irish coast with the loss of 1.200 lives, only heightened tensions, according to the US State Department.
Astrid Andersen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, explains that because Denmark was neutral during the war, “Washington feared that Germany might invade it and take control of the islands and the port on St. Thomas.”
If these islands had fallen into German hands, they could have become the perfect base from which submarines could launch attacks on shipping or even American territory.
The construction of the Panama Canal in 1914 also intensified American interest in the region, as control of the islands would provide guarantees of safety for the hundreds of ships that pass through the waterways each year.
With economic interests and national security in mind, Washington and Copenhagen then began negotiations.
The American position at the time, Andersen says, has some similarities to the position taken by President Trump today.
"There are echoes of what we hear today, because the United States said, 'Either sell them to us, or we'll invade them,'" Andersen says.
According to the US State Department website, Wilson's Secretary of State issued a warning to Denmark that if it refused to sell the territory, the US could occupy the islands to prevent their potential capture.
Earlier this month, Trump told reporters in Washington that Greenland must be "owned" by the US to prevent Russia and China from doing so, adding that he would do it "the easy way" or "the hard way."
Finally, in August 1916, Denmark and the U.S. agreed to sell the islands for $25 million in gold, the equivalent of about $630 million today, according to Bloomberg.
That agreement also paved the way for American recognition of Danish sovereignty over Greenland.
As part of this agreement, the US pledged not to oppose Denmark's "expansion of political and economic interests to all of Greenland."
This time, the convention was ratified by both states.
This was also supported by the Danish people, who voted overwhelmingly in favor of the sale in a referendum.
In reality, "most Danes did not see the islands as part of Denmark," Andersen says.
The historian points out that neither in this attempt, nor in the previous one, did the local population of the island get a chance to speak out on the issue.
But when it comes to Greenland now, the problem is that this time Denmark doesn't want to sell it.
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