United States President Donald Trump's long-standing goal of acquiring Greenland for America has moved from rhetoric to official U.S. policy as the White House moves toward a formal plan to take over the Arctic island from Denmark, the New York Times reports.
The plan mobilizes several cabinet members behind Trump's years-long talk of wanting Greenland, whose economic and strategic value has grown as warming temperatures melt Arctic ice, according to the New York Times in its article "Inside Trump's Plan to 'Get' Greenland: Persuasion, Not Invasion."
Greenland's size — 836.330 square miles — also offers Trump, a former Manhattan investor, a chance to pull off what he sees as one of the biggest real estate deals in history.
Danish officials angrily insist that the sparsely populated island is not for sale and cannot be annexed. But Trump has made clear his determination to control it.
"We need Greenland for national security, and even international security, and we're working with everyone involved to try to get it," he said in an address to Congress last month.
"One way or another, we're going to get it," Trump added.
The White House National Security Council has met several times to put Trump's words into action, and recently sent specific instructions to multiple branches of government, according to a US official.
The full details of the plan are unclear, the New York Times reports, adding that despite Trump's allusions to the possible use of force, discussions led by the Security Council never seriously considered military options, the official said.
The policy instead emphasizes persuasion rather than coercion and is a public relations effort aimed at convincing Greenland's 57.000 residents that they should ask to join the US.
Trump's advisers have discussed using advertising and social media campaigns to influence public opinion on the island, according to another person briefed on the matter.
It may be an uphill battle. In last month's elections, an opposition political party that advocates for quick independence and closer ties with the United States finished in second place, with a quarter of the vote.
The U.S. messaging campaign will include an unlikely appeal to Greenlanders' shared heritage with the native Inuit in the U.S. state of Alaska, nearly 2.500 miles away, the official said.
Greenland's Inuit population descends from people who migrated from Alaska several hundred years ago, and the island's official language is derived from Inuit dialects originating in Arctic Canada.
Trump's advisers have already begun to make their public arguments, arguing that Denmark has been a poor guardian of the island, that only the US can protect it from attacks by Russia and China, and that America will help Greenlanders "get rich," as Trump put it.
The Trump administration also recalls that the US has defended Greenland before, the text states.
Last month, Trump posted a beautiful 90-second video on social media celebrating the "blood and courage" of American troops who took up positions on the island during World War II to prevent a Nazi invasion, after Nazi Germany occupied Denmark.
Although Denmark hoped that American forces would leave after the war, they never did, and the US still has a military base there.
The Trump administration is also studying financial incentives for Greenlanders, including the possibility of replacing the $600 million in subsidies Denmark gives the island annually with about $10.000 for each Greenlander.
Some Trump officials believe those costs could be offset by new revenues from extracting Greenland's natural resources, which include rare earth minerals, copper, gold, uranium and oil.
Trump officials argue that American capital and industrial power can gain access to the island's largely untapped mineral wealth in a way that Denmark cannot.
"These are critical minerals. These are natural resources," Trump's national security adviser, Michael Walz, told Fox News in January.
But analysts generally disagree that it will be easy to profit from mining in the still-cold regions of the island.
And explaining to American voters why significant spending should be made could be difficult, given that Trump has tasked the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, with reducing federal government spending by a trillion dollars.
Trump's interest in Greenland is not new. He was serious enough in his first term to task national security officials with investigating the idea. But after he began discussing it publicly, Greenlandic officials balked, and Trump did not pursue the idea, dismissing it as a wild fantasy.
Since being elected for a second time as US president last fall, Trump has renewed his desire with greater fervor.
"Let's do it," he demanded of his assistant.
"President Trump believes that Greenland is a strategically important location and is confident that Greenlanders would be better protected by the United States from modern threats in the Arctic region," National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said.
Hughes noted that Walz and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance recently visited Greenland and "made an important case for a partnership between Greenland and the U.S. to establish long-term peace at home and shared prosperity abroad."
Some analysts say the idea of incorporating Greenland into the United States, or at least developing much closer ties with the island, is less absurd than it sounds, writes the New York Times. This is largely due to climate change, which is thawing resource-rich areas and making them more commercially viable. Warmer temperatures have also opened up new shipping routes through the Arctic for commercial ships, as well as for Chinese and Russian military vessels.
But Trump's promises to control Greenland "one way or another" sound like crude imperialism to much of the world, along with his talk of retaking the Panama Canal and even annexing Canada. If the administration's persuasion efforts fail, it seems entirely possible that Trump will escalate his tactics.
Several American presidents considered attempting to purchase Greenland. The Truman administration, alarmed by Nazi threats to the island during World War II, offered Denmark the equivalent of $1946 billion for it in XNUMX.
Denmark has exercised various forms of control over Greenland for centuries, and accepted it as part of its kingdom in 1953. Today, Greenland runs its own internal affairs with a budget subsidized by Denmark, which also conducts its defense and foreign policy. Many Greenlandic leaders support independence, but differ on how quickly it should happen and whether to move closer to the United States.
For their part, Danish leaders are shocked and furious at Trump's talk of buying or seizing the island, and insist that Greenlanders must freely determine their own destiny.
During a visit to Greenland last week, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen condemned "pressure and threats from the Trump administration," saying "you cannot annex another country."
Amid fierce resistance from Denmark, the Trump administration is turning to direct courtship of Greenlanders.
Addressing the people of Greenland during his address to Congress, Trump said: "We strongly support your right to determine your own future and, if you choose, we welcome you to the United States. We will protect you. We will make you rich."
Vance made a similar note on March 28 during a visit to a US military base on the island.
Speaking to reporters there, Vance predicted that Greenlanders would "self-determine to choose to become independent from Denmark, and then we will talk to the people of Greenland from there."
Trump and his senior officials have yet to publicly draw out the connections between the Inuit of Greenland and the American Inuit of Alaska, as envisioned in a plan approved by the National Security Council.
But this dynamic was noticed in December by Robert O'Brien, who was one of Trump's national security advisers in his first term.
Denmark, O'Brien said in an interview with Fox News, "may let us buy Greenland from them, and Greenland can become part of Alaska. I mean, the natives of Greenland are very closely related to the people of Alaska, and we will make it part of Alaska."
It's unclear how strongly that message will resonate on the island. While Alaskans share in the profits from their state's oil wealth in the form of annual checks for residents, its Inuit suffer disproportionate poverty and ill health.
Danish leaders argue that the US pressure campaign is already damaging America's post-World War II alliance with Denmark.
"We looked up to you. You inspired us. You kept the free world safe," Frederiksen said of the US during her visit to Greenland this month.
"But," she added, "when you demand to take over part of the kingdom's territory — when we are exposed to pressure and threats — what should we think of the country we have admired for so many years?"
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