President Trump’s plans to send representatives to Greenland this week have angered political leaders on the island territory, who see the group’s visit as an aggressive escalation of his threats to seize the area, by force if necessary.
Mr. Trump has made no secret of his designs on Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, repeating his threats to acquire it through a financial transaction or military force several times since his return to the Oval Office.
The response of Greenlandic and Danish leaders had been polite but firmly opposed, stating the island was not for sale.
But this week’s visits from Usha Vance, the second lady, and Mike Waltz, the national security adviser, have elicited a more agitated response. Prime Minister Mute Bourup Egede told Sermitsiaq, a local newspaper, that their expected arrival, little more than two weeks after Greenland held parliamentary elections, is “highly aggressive,” and “the only purpose is to demonstrate power over us.” And Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, lashed out at the Trump administration on Tuesday, calling it “unacceptable pressure.”
“You cannot make a private visit with official representatives from another country, when the acting Greenlandic government has made it very clear that they do not want a visit at this time,” Ms. Frederiksen added.
So why is Mr. Trump so determined to have Greenland? Here’s a window into his thinking.
Greenland is in strategically important territory.
Most of Greenland lies within the Arctic Circle, a region that the world’s powers are vying for over for its untapped natural resources and its proximity to emerging shipping corridors that would accelerate global trade. Already, melting Arctic ice has transformed the region that was once largely unnavigable into an area of competitive commerce, as more ships traverse the Arctic Circle and countries with land in the region scramble to lay claim to as much of the seabed as possible.
Routes between Asia and Europe, or Asia and the United States, are about 40 percent shorter through the Arctic than either the Suez or Panama Canals, according to the U.S. Naval Institute. That makes the question of who controls the seas there critical for both financial and security purposes, especially given the claimants also happen to be rival geopolitical superpowers.
Only five countries can claim to have an extended continental shelf into the Arctic: Canada, Russia, Norway, Denmark via Greenland, and the United States via Alaska. Acquiring Greenland would give the United States a significantly bigger claim in the Arctic.
Trump has said it is vital for national security.
“We need Greenland for national security and even international security,” Mr. Trump said in March during an address to Congress, adding the territory was “very, very important for military security.”
The United States has had troops in Greenland since World War II, and keeps a small missile defense base there called Pituffik Space Base — formerly Thule Air Base, before Mr. Trump redesignated it during his first administration. It is possible that base could become part of the “Golden Dome” missile defense system, modeled after Israel’s Iron Dome system, that Mr. Trump has said he wants to build to protect the entirety of the United States from potential threats from adversaries, especially China. In an executive order, Mr. Trump gave Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, until March 28 to produce the plans for that missile defense shield.
But there are market-based threats Mr. Trump wants to protect against as well. Russia and China are already cooperating on Arctic shipping routes, and with Russia’s extensive presence in the region — it has the largest area of Arctic coastline — that partnership threatens to remain the dominant economic force in the area.
Greenland could be a rich source for rare earth minerals and energy.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Arctic holds 13 percent of undiscovered gas resources and 30 percent of undiscovered natural gas, most of it offshore. Controlling Greenland would give the United States an expanded claim to those seabed resources.
But Greenland also uniquely boasts huge stores of rare earth minerals that are vital to the production of batteries, cellphones, electric vehicles and other technology — and the Trump administration has been looking globally to augment its rare earth mineral holdings.
Rare earth minerals have been a key part of an agreement that the United States has been trying to strike with Ukraine. Greenland’s stores of cobalt, nickel, copper, lithium, zirconium and other minerals have proven challenging to mine, but there is another incentive for the United States to seek to control that market: China.
Currently, China dominates the world’s raw mineral market, and has already attempted to make inroads in Greenland. Acquiring the territory would allow Mr. Trump to check Beijing’s efforts to exploit minerals there and expand America’s holdings.
Climate change could soon make Greenland a hot commodity.
Part of the reason it has been difficult to exploit Greenland’s resources to date is that it is so darn cold. But with climate change, melting ice is creating new opportunities for resource exploitation. In the last 30 years, about 11,000 square miles of ice sheet have melted, an area about the size of Maryland.
Denmark has also recognized the potential of Greenland’s resources to be vital in the global transition to greener forms of energy. For the local population, the potential for an economic boom from mining is seen as helpful in its bid for independence, which a majority of the population wants.
But the development of the industry has been slow. Greenland has taken steps to limit the potential for environmentally destructive mining practices through laws, including a ban on uranium mining in 2021. But those could be overturned if the United States acquires the territory.
