Hands off Greenland

Despite the unequivocal statements of the existing and former Prime Ministers of both Greenland and Denmark that Greenland is not for sale, Trump continues to issue his imperialistic assertions that, one way or another, he will take Greenland.

Growing up in the world of New York real estate, Donald Trump developed early on an appreciation for size and a special fondness for bigness. He would estimate the crowd size at his rallies as twice as large as they actually were. He told everyone that his Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue was many stories taller than it actually was. He had an architectural firm design what would have been the world’s tallest building for New York harbor (not built). Surely, some of Trump’s fascination with Russia stems from it being by far the world’s largest country. Even his proposed Wall along the Mexican border, while shorter than the Great Wall of China, which he greatly admires, would have been a giant.

Greenland, the largest island in the world, has for more than 300 years been a territory of Denmark and since 1979 has enjoyed Home Rule with foreign affairs being the main area of government still controlled by Denmark. The overall population is only 57,000 and its capitol, Nuuk has not quite 10,000 residents. Over 85% of the population is Inuit with the remainder European, mostly Danish. Modern industry is only beginning to dominate employment situation and is still less significant than fishing. Agriculture is but a tiny segment of the economy — it’s just too cold, and trees and shrubs are few and far between. The name “Greenland” was bestowed by the Viking explorer Erik the Red to attract residents to this very sparsely vegetated land.

Trump was quick to express his desire to own Greenland. He and his “experts” have been trying to make the case that American control of Greenland would be a vital component of US and world security interests and they have implied that China or Russia will take it over if we don’t. But the American military has had an Air Force base on the island since 1949, expanding it from time to time as it deemed necessary,

The idea that the US needs to ‘take” Greenland, as Trump puts it, is without merit, a bogus excuse to cover the actual reasons he wants it. Just as in Ukraine where Trump’s shakedown of Zelensky to acquire much of the country’s subterranean mineral wealth, Trump’s advisors have told him that buried beneath Greenland’s miles of ice-covered landscape are a treasure trove of precious rare minerals just waiting for America to uncover them. Actually we don’t really know since the ice cover is so deep and little subterranean exploration has taken place.

Trump recently sent Vice President Vance and his wife on what was billed as a pleasure trip to Greenland but they were given such a chilly reception with sign-wielding protesters standing in the streets that they had to travel instead to the US-controlled Pituffik military base 110 miles away from the capitol, Nuuk. While he spoke in a friendlier tone of voice than his boss, Vance managed to offend nearly all the Greenlanders who heard him or later read his comments. He also insulted Denmark saying that

“Our message to Denmark is very simple, you have not done a good job by the people of Greenland. . ”

However, as former Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt recently told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, the US as part of NATO previously had a much greater military presence than it does now “There is nothing”, she said” “stopping the United States from ramping up its military presence in Greenland again without needing to take over the whole territory; there is a treaty from 1951 where it is very clear that the Americans have huge access to Greenland,” she said to Zakaria, noting that at one point during the height of the Cold War, there were 16 military bases on Greenland. There’s nothing stopping the Americans from getting more engaged militarily in Greenland, having more bases, if that’s what they want.”

Despite the unequivocal statements of the existing and former Prime Ministers of both Greenland and Denmark that Greenland is not for sale, Trump continues to issue his imperialistic assertions that, one way or another, he will take Greenland.

Standing with the coalition leaders of Greenland’s government, current Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen reasserted her country’s desire to cooperate with the U.S. in strengthening Greenland’s defense but she insisted that Greenland was not for sale and that ”you cannot annex another country, not even with an argument about international security.”

Should Trump feel that his control over the American people is not strong enough to risk war with NATO to get his way, he may try to get his benefactor, Musk to try to buy the citizens of Greenland offering a generous payout to each Greenlander to vote for selling their country. But would the Greenlanders go along? I don’t think so. And would Denmark? Doubtful. As for military action (war), would Congress and the Supreme Court go along? And what about the American people? Let’s hope good sense prevails.

Architect and landscape designer Mac Gordon lives in Lakeville.