Greenland at Any Cost? Why Trump Is Becoming a Global Threat

Not yet even in office, the 78-year-old is already presenting himself as a saber-rattling imperialist. At a press conference at his Florida estate, Trump indulges in the imperialist fantasy of potentially annexing Greenland to the United States even by military means, should the purchase of the island fail. Fitting with this is his post on his own social media platform Truth Social: There, Trump dreams of redesignating resource-rich Canada as the 51st state of the United States. These statements about Greenland and Canada suggest that Trump views international politics as a kind of power game in which strong nations pressure weaker ones.

A snow-covered giant between the Arctic and the Atlantic, offering more ice than earth, more reindeer than people, and a landscape where time seems to stand still. What does Donald Trump want there? Already during his first term, he wanted to buy Greenland. One of the most important reasons is certainly the ice slowly receding due to climate change. Beneath it, alongside oil and gas, but also gold, diamonds, uranium, zinc, and lead, three substantial deposits of rare earths such as neodymium oxide and dysprosium oxide are being revealed. This group of metals belongs to the 34 raw materials designated as “critical” by the EU for Europe, of which a total of 25 can be found on the island. For Trump, this is a true treasure, as the United States has the refineries to extract valuable magnetic metals from the ore and thereby become more independent from China. Furthermore, the receding ice is opening up new trade routes, and an important military base is located in Greenland. This enables the United States to exert greater control over the sea connecting NATO Europe and Russia.

However, there is a problem: The Greenlanders do not want to become American. Instead, the Kalaallit, as the 56,000 indigenous inhabitants of the island call themselves, wish to maintain their substantial independence. While they formally belong to Denmark, they are effectively autonomous. This means they could decide for themselves about their national affiliation—whether they want to continue as a special zone of Denmark or become part of the United States. Trump Junior recently visited the island and distributed food donations to the homeless so that they might someday vote to become Americans. When the plates are empty and the ballots eventually appear on the table, it may be questionable whether they will remember. After all, it is just one meal in exchange for a land full of mineral resources—one is vaguely reminded of earlier exchanges of glass beads for gold.

Donald Trump’s threat of not being able to rule out military interventions is strongly reminiscent of the wording of many a speech by Xi Jinping. Indeed, we can assume that the Chinese head of state is observing Trump’s behavior as closely as the EU’s response to it. For like Greenland, Taiwan is also a territory with special status that arouses desires due to its location and its manufactured goods—in the latter case, technologically advanced semiconductors. Trump seems intent on proving that the United States can do imperialism. Europe can and should prove that it stands united.