Amidst all of the political chaos that has followed Donald Trump’s inauguration, one concern has been his multiple expressions of a desire to buy Greenland.
Trump has expressed this desire before but restated it in a press conference and left the inhabitants of this Danish territory concerned. Reasons for this concern have been their small populations, his motives, and why he even thinks it is for sale to begin with.
With the population of this area only being around 100,000 some Greenlanders have said that they fear that the language or culture of the area could disappear with the introduction of Americans that would come with being added to the U.S.
Another question asked is, “Why does Trump want Greenland?” Well, some worry that he may be setting his sights on Greenland for resource extraction to get raw materials or uranium. This could end up leaving Greenland stumbling around environmentally. Trump has said that the United States “needs Greenland for economic security,” though not directly stated, experts have said that this could mean the resources as those resources are going to keep becoming more available and global warming slowly thaws the area’s icy landscapes.
All of this leaves us with one last question, “Why does he think Greenland is for sale?” Both Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen have said that Greenland is “not for sale and will never be for sale,” Prime Minister Egede even made a post to Facebook saying that, “Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland.” Currently, there have been some ideas of Greenland becoming independent, but with Trump coming in with his plans, causing a scare, some residents of the area have said they would rather stay under Danish control.
Trump’s passion to make Greenland part of America has left making claims that his interests seem “worrying” and “dangerous” especially when he made a statement saying that he wouldn’t be above using military or economic coercion to achieve his goal. Donald Trump Jr. made a very well-documented trip to the territory. While no comment was made by Donald Sr. or Jr. saying that this trip was made for the President’s goal to obtain the frosty territory, it left many people disconcerted.
While I’m certainly not trying to jump to any extremes, I can’t seem to shake the resemblance I see to the Russia and Ukraine war. With all of the horrible tragedies, death, and unadulterated hate in their fight, I would be horrified and frankly scared for our country if we tried to do that to Greenland. So for now we hear the claims, listen wisely, and pray for an end to chaos in the world.
Stay safe and inform yourself.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/08/europe/what-greenland-thinks-of-trump-intl-latam?cid=ios_appWorrying or welcome? What Greenlanders think of Trump’s bid to buy the island