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How is Donald Trump Jr. suddenly visited Greenland this week, President-elect Donald Trump’s rhetoric is getting more serious. by purchasing the Danish Arctic territory.
The president-elect did not rule out using military coercion to gain control of Greenland at a news conference in Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. “No, I can’t convince you of either of those two,” Trump said, when asked if he would rule out using military or economic coercion to gain control of Greenland. “We need it for national security. It’s for the free world. I’m talking about protecting the free world,” he continued.
Meanwhile, Danish leaders remain adamant that the Arctic territory is not for sale. “We have a clear interest in the US playing a big role, not Russia or other countries. But Greenland is for the Greenlandic people,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters on Tuesday.
THE DANISH PRIME MINISTER HAS AN OPEN MESSAGE FOR TRUMP: GREENLAND IS NOT FOR SALE
Houses are seen on the coast in Nuuk, Greenland. (Marli Miller/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Greenlanders will vote later this year whether they want to remain part of Denmark or not. The strategic island is at a territorial crossroads as the US, China and Russia race for control of the melting Arctic region.
Denmark and therefore Greenland are NATO allies. Article 5 of the NATO charter states that any military attack on a NATO ally requires a military response from the rest of the alliance.
“I don’t think it’s useful to talk about the implications of Article Five because the United States is not actually going to use force against a NATO ally. There are many reasons why that would never happen.” Ian Bremmer, founder and chairman of Eurasia Group, told Fox News.
“It’s not that you don’t take what the president says seriously, because the fact that he’s making these threats changes how much America’s allies feel they can count on the United States moving forward … it undermines the influence that the United States has in terms of the international rule of law, it brings us closer to the law of the jungle,” he continued. is Bremmer.
U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman and distinguished guests stand in front of a radar turret belonging to the 23rd Space Operations Detachment 1 at Pituffik Space Base, Greenland, April 5, 2023. (US Space Force)
Trump first started talking about buying Greenland in 2019 because it has about a quarter of the world’s rare earth minerals, needed for all electronics, semiconductor manufacturing, the defense industry and the new clean energy economy.
Sherri Goodman, who was the Pentagon’s first undersecretary of defense for environmental security in the 1990s, recently wrote a book on the strategic and national security implications of climate change, titled “The Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership, and the Struggle for Global Security.” “
Goodman saw first hand how important Greenland is the US Army.
TRUMP ESCALATES PLANS TO ACQUIRE GREENLAND AFTER RESIDENT SAYS: ‘DENMARK IS USING US’
Donald Trump Jr., right, poses for a photo as he arrives in Nuuk, Greenland, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (Emil Stach/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
“We’ve long had a military base in northern Greenland to track ex-Soviet and now Russian incoming missiles or satellites. And because of climate change, navigation around Greenland and travel to Greenland is becoming more accessible,” Goodman said.
Then-President Harry Truman wanted to buy Greenland after World War II to kick the Soviets out of the Arctic. During the Cold War, the Arctic region was the most direct route for strategic nuclear exchanges between the US and the USSR using long-range bombers and ballistic missiles. The GIUK Gap east of Greenland is a major access point for Russian operations in the Atlantic Ocean. Greenland has become a key location for early warning networks and today is home to the northernmost US military installation, Pituffik Space Force Base, which holds a significant portion of the global network of missile warning and space surveillance sensors.
The new Pituffik Space Base sign shown in the headquarters building at Pituffik Space Base, Greenland, on April 6, 2023. Pituffik, previously known as Thule Air Base, was renamed on April 6, 2023. (US Space Force)
China’s ambitions in the Arctic have grown in recent years. In 2018, China outlined plans to build infrastructure and develop shipping lanes opened up by climate change. State-owned companies have made offers to buy land in both Iceland and Greenland, but so far without success.
Temperatures in the Arctic are rising four times faster than the rest of the world, making access to rare earth minerals more accessible.
“In this rush for resources, the US, NATO and NATO allies want to ensure that China and Russia don’t approach it. China has a history of using surrogate science and research as a way to access and learn about territories in the Arctic,” Goodman said.
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Snow-capped mountains up to 1,000 meters high can be seen near Kings Bay Research Station in Ny-Alesund on Spitsbergen Island, Norway, April 10, 2015. The year-round manned Arctic research stations of China, Norway, Germany and France are now operational in the area of the former mining site on the Svalbard archipelago. (Jens Büttner/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh was asked about Greenland at a Defense Department briefing on Wednesday. “I’m certainly not going to get into hypotheses. I think that’s up to the incoming administration,” Singh said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken answered a question about Greenland at a press conference in Paris on Wednesday. “The idea expressed about Greenland is clearly not a good one. But perhaps more importantly, it’s clearly not going to happen. So we probably shouldn’t waste a lot of time talking about it,” Blinken said.
