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Trump suggests U.S. should take ownership of Greenland

  
Via:  John Russell  •  16 hours ago  •  13 comments


Trump suggests U.S. should take ownership of Greenland
President-elect Trump indicated he wants Greenland under U.S. control as he named PayPal co-founder Ken Howery as his pick for United States ambassador to Denmark on Sunday. The latest: Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede made clear on Monday that the autonomous territory that’s part of its kingdom of Denmark was not for sale.

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Trump suggests U.S. should take ownership of Greenland

President-elect Trump indicated he wants Greenland under U.S. control as he named PayPal co-founder Ken Howery as his pick for United States ambassador to Denmark on Sunday.

The latest: Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede made clear on Monday that the autonomous territory that’s part of its kingdom of Denmark was not for sale.

“Greenland is ours,” Egede said on Facebook. “We are not for sale and will never be for sale.”
The big picture: Trump said during his first administration that he was looking into the U.S. buying Greenland and canceled a state trip to Denmark after Danish officials said it was’t for sale.

He made his latest comments on Greenland after demanding earlier in the weekend that Panamanian authorities lower fees for U.S. ships to transit the Panama Canal or return its control to the United States.

Driving the news: “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social on Howery.
“Ken will do a wonderful job in representing the interests of the United States.”

Representatives for both Trump and Denmark’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to Axios request for comment in the evening.

Background: The U.S. has on several occasions since 1867 considered or attempted to buy Greenland — the world’s largest island that’s not a continent.

Greenland is part of the continent of North America, but it has close geopolitical ties to Europe and has received EU funding as it’s classed as an overseas territory associated with the bloc via Denmark.

Between the lines: The territory has access to the Arctic, where there’s been a race between nations for resources in a region that research shows is already feeling the impacts of climate change.

Russia has in recent years sought to claim territory up to Greenland’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

Greenland’s natural resources include gold, silver, copper and uranium and there’s believed to be significant potential for oil in the waters off the territory.


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JohnRussell
Professor Principal
1  seeder  JohnRussell    16 hours ago

Four more years of this shit. 

 
 
 
cjcold
Professor Quiet
1.1  cjcold  replied to  JohnRussell @1    15 hours ago

And he's not even president yet.

 
 
 
Igknorantzruls
Sophomore Quiet
1.2  Igknorantzruls  replied to  JohnRussell @1    15 hours ago

C'mon, what better reason do we need to just take Greenland ? Besides the non-Trump has given. You know someone has told Trump there is great resources of value there, and Trump wants to cash in, aas usual. What a fckn buffoon!

 
 
 
Buzz of the Orient
Professor Expert
1.3  Buzz of the Orient  replied to  JohnRussell @1    14 hours ago

Wait!  He's going to want America to own the moon.  He'll argue that when Neil Armstrong planted a flag on the moon he claimed it for the USA, and the SCotUS is going to agree with him.  

apollo-11.jpg?width=3840&height=1920&crop=3840%3A1920%2Csmart&quality=75&auto=webp

 
 
 
Ed-NavDoc
Professor Quiet
1.3.1  Ed-NavDoc  replied to  Buzz of the Orient @1.3    4 hours ago

"Wait! I think he's going to want America to own the moon."

Nope, I think Xi may already have that in mind./s

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
2  seeder  JohnRussell    15 hours ago
Now he wants Greenland too. So Annex Greenland & Canada… Invade Mexico… Steal the Panama Canal... Imagine the reaction if any other world leader was regularly saying belligerent stuff like this.
 
 
 
Freewill
Junior Quiet
3  Freewill    15 hours ago

It does certainly sound silly now but it isn't the first time the US government has expressed interest in purchasing Greenland for various strategic reasons.  The last time was indeed shortly after WWII as the Cold War began and there were some military/security reasons for the effort.

From the article:

Russia has in recent years sought to claim territory up to Greenland’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

Would be interesting to know more details on the circumstances of this and how it plays into Trump's recent remarks.  As we know from what happened in Ukraine, Putin might have other ideas up his sleeve and it isn't a stretch to think that there may be some valid reason to revisit the idea of purchasing part or all of Greenland with Denmark.   But it can't be in the form of threats, Denmark will need to agree to the terms freely, which up to this point sounds like it ain't gonna happen.

 
 
 
JohnRussell
Professor Principal
3.1  seeder  JohnRussell  replied to  Freewill @3    15 hours ago

Greenland is important to US national security.  LOL. 

Trump wants glory and or money. Thats all it is. 

 
 
 
Freewill
Junior Quiet
3.1.1  Freewill  replied to  JohnRussell @3.1    13 hours ago
Thats all it is. 

Oh well shit, why didn’t you say that before?   I’ll ignore the article and the links therein then and just go with your expert opinion.  

How long have you been with the State Department, DoD, CIA, DHS?

 
 
 
Freewill
Junior Quiet
3.1.2  Freewill  replied to  JohnRussell @3.1    12 hours ago
Greenland is important to US national security.  LOL. 

Why is that funny?  Looking into this a bit more, turns out that the Biden Administration agreed that Greenland was extremely important from a security standpoint on several fronts including both military strategy and access to specific resources.  See the following from May 2021  

A RARE Opportunity: How Greenland came to be central to the Biden Presidency

That is why the US needs to acquire access to a significant REE resource. This is reflected in the creation of the Energy Resource Governing Initiative ( ERGI ) that was created in June 2019 by the US, Australia, Canada, Botswana and Peru – something the White House  referred to  in its presentation of President Biden’s Climate Change summit.

With Blinken visiting the Faroe Islands and Greenland, the American objectives for each nation is clear. The Faroe Islands is being assessed as an integrated support point for the   US Navy and its increased activities in the Arctic   as well as   a site for a new NATO radar station .

If the Biden administration finds a way to navigate the current Greenlandic political situation and appease the current Greenlandic majority, the way is paved for a political masterstroke that cements US global leadership for decades to come.

It turns out that Trump also floated the idea of buying Greenland in 2019, and had some support from the Pentagon and some of the same people who were concerned about the strategic value of Greenland in the Biden administration.  More info here from January 2022:

A year into Biden’s presidency, U.S. military plans for Greenland remain unclear

In Copenhagen, relations with the U.S. are considered crucial to basically all Danish security and many foreign policy issues. Denmark’s government considers the permanent maintenance of a close military alliance with the U.S. to be at the very core of its responsibilities.

Meanwhile, it is not forgotten how Trump’s idea to buy Greenland seemed to reflect a firm and steadfast U.S. wish to counter Russia’s military build-up in the Arctic and China’s economic and diplomatic inroads in the region. Both are clearly considered to be real and current threats to the U.S., — thus positioning the Faroe Islands and Greenland smack in the center of U.S. strategic concerns.

If the Trump administration — including its foreign service and the Pentagon — was so eager to embrace Greenland, reopening the U.S. consulate in Nuuk, investing for the first time ever in Greenland’s civil society and sending frequent signals about about Greenland’s strategic importance, what then are the Biden-administration’s plans for follow-ups?

To sum up, there are no signs that U.S. interests in Greenland are diminishing. Quite the contrary. When Trump announced his wish to buy Greenland, he talked of the strategic minerals in Greenland’s subsoil, and this particular priority seems to also still have Washngton’s keen interest; the U.S. is also keen to thwart any risk that China might gain control over Greenland’s resources.

A White House   background report   was equally adamant: “The United States must secure reliable and sustainable supplies of critical minerals and metals to ensure resilience across U.S. manufacturing and defense needs” it said. In December 2021, Biden issued his own presidential memorandum focused, like Trump’s, singularly on rare earths:

“Shortfalls”, Biden   wrote,   “would severely impair national defense capability.”

Again, Greenland’s rare earth deposits are most likely still blinking visibly on the radar of the planners and strategists in Washington. However, like in the military sphere, it might be that at this point in time nobody in the new administration has yet figured out exactly how to proceed.

So, while it is unlikely that "buying" Greenland will be the winning strategy, the concerns behind Trump's remarks have been echoed in many corners of the US and Danish security apparatus since before Trump's first term, through Biden's Administration, and up to today.  I'd just prefer to hear the experts explain it rather than hear Trump butcher the real facts and concerns.

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
4  CB    15 hours ago

Apparently Trump is not merely a developer and builder, but a visionary figure too?  I will give him this: he persists!

 
 
 
Thomas
PhD Guide
5  Thomas    14 hours ago

Nice. He's got dibs on the Northwest Passage. What a rube.

 
 
 
Freewill
Junior Quiet
5.1  Freewill  replied to  Thomas @5    13 hours ago

Indeed.  The way he phrases things is like a third grader on a playground.  Would be better if he kept his mouth shut and let the sources of the info he is thinking about do the talking.

 
 

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