Trump’s Overture to Greenland Isn’t Just About Strategy. It’s About Reaffirming American Greatness.

Acquiring Greenland, or at least more closely partnering with it, is a critical element of President-elect Donald Trump’s shift on American foreign policy. 

In an age of increasing great power conflict, it might be necessary for the security of the United States. But it’s about more than just that. It could signal a great national reset.

Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Egede appeared on Fox News’ “Special Report with Bret Baier” on Thursday night. He said that Greenland, a territory of Denmark, intends to be a partner with the U.S. and NATO.

Egede said that the people of Greenland don’t want to be either Danes or Americans, but never actually rebuffed the idea that the U.S. could acquire Greenland. He noted that his people welcomed “investment in our minerals.”

It’s clear that there is at least some eager support in Greenland for the North Atlantic island nation three times the size of Texas being acquired by the U.S.

On top of Trump’s courtship, there have been murmurs that Greenland might be pursuing full independence.

It may seem curious that in the days before returning to the White House, Trump has devoted a significant amount of time to talking about Canada, the Panama Canal, as well as Greenland.

In the case of Greenland, he even sent son Donald Trump Jr. to tour the island and court the locals, if you can really call such a vast piece of land an “island.”

In a larger sense, Trump seems poised to make a major pivot in American foreign policy toward more immediate interests in the Western Hemisphere, with the clear intent to counter China in an era of increasing great power conflict. Trump is initiating a return to the Monroe Doctrine.

If the United States is to have a new “golden age,” then it’s vital that U.S. interests are protected abroad and that we avoid global, large-scale war. Trump’s focusing on core American interests on our doorstep is a big part of that.

The strategic importance of the Panama Canal may seem more obvious. The canal controls the flow of trade between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Given the fact that the U.S. is a two-ocean nation, the military threat of the canal suddenly not being open and free in a time of war is enormous. A Hong Kong-based company now owns ports on both the Atlantic and Pacific side ports of the canal.

In hindsight, Ronald Reagan may have been right. Maybe we never should have given up full control of the canal to begin with.

But what about Greenland? Why does this seemingly barren piece of land with a population of fewer than 50,000 hold significance?

Trump’s nominee for secretary of state, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in his Senate committee confirmation testimony did an excellent job summarizing why Greenland is important.

“Greenland has been strategically important to the United States and the West for a very long time,” Rubio said. He noted that in 1941, during World War II, Greenland became a protectorate of the U.S. despite still being owned by German-occupied Denmark.

President Harry Truman later tried to acquire Greenland and was rebuffed, but the U.S. placed considerable military assets there as a part of a defense agreement.

Rubio highlighted how significant Greenland is for access to and navigation of the Arctic, where Russia and China have increased their presence.

And the benefit for U.S. acquisition doesn’t just stop there. There is an enlightening thread on X by Danish citizen Ulrik K. Lykke, who wrote that he’s in favor of the U.S. taking Greenland, calling it a “win-win-win.”

Lykke noted that Greenland is 836,300 square miles, and that six countries the size of Germany could fit inside it. Alaska, by comparison is “only” 665,384 square miles. Like Alaska, it is filled to the brim with natural resources. It has millions of tons of rare earth minerals, uranium deposits, vast oil reserves, and much more.

Sure, these resources might not seem as appealing as spreading “human rights” for America’s foreign policy establishment, but they are of critical importance if the U.S. is to compete economically and militarily with China and other nations that have prioritized resource acquisition.

We didn’t win World War II with human rights. We won because we were the greatest industrial power on earth, with immense natural resources and strong allies.

Greenland’s resources would certainly be difficult to extract. Its climate is harsh, its population is small, and its infrastructure is bare bones at best.

Consider this, though. What people are more up to the challenge of developing a challenging new frontier than Americans? Perhaps beyond the more obvious strategic significance, Greenland would represent a new chapter for the United States that once again embraces its heritage as the great frontier nation.

And who better to start that project than the businessman president?

Chris Cutrone, an adjunct associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, described the “spiritual” need for Greenland perfectly in a piece he wrote for Compact Magazine:

The neglected and forgotten Danish colony in the Western Hemisphere captures something of the nature of Trump’s character, which is bombastic, but not empty. Where others have been complacent to let spaces lie unutilized, he has set to building. Could this be done on the mostly vacant territory of the world’s largest island? Where others now see a barren wasteland, Trump finds not only possibilities but necessities—the necessity for American growth and change.

Well said.

Greenland is strategically important in a material and geographic sense. Great powers will be looking to control it—especially if it were to go independent—and relying on current assurances from Greenland’s government that we’ll always be friends is no real guarantee that the arrangement won’t change.

But more importantly, a deal to acquire Greenland—even if it’s short of actual direct control—could be of profound benefit to the morale of the American people. Alongside renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, it’s a symbol that the U.S. is both setting its sights closer to home, but also reaffirming its prominence.

From the beginning, Americans have expected greatness from this country. In the past few years, we’ve perhaps lost sight of that. President Joe Biden’s administration tried to assert global American primacy with false promises and idle threats from a feeble old man out of his wits. Our enemies didn’t take the threats seriously, and wars followed in its wake.

Bringing Greenland fully into the U.S. orbit will perhaps be a large part of the “reset” this country needs to ensure we live through yet another American century.

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