The Trump administration continues to push hard to acquire Greenland and for good reason.
On Sunday the White House announced that second lady Usha Vance would be visiting Greenland to observe a sled race and tour historic sites.
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White House national security adviser Mike Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will be visiting as well.
Greenland’s outgoing, left-wing Prime Minister Mute B. Egede called this move “very aggressive American pressure,” which seems like an exaggeration. But maybe aggressive American pressure is what’s needed to ensure that a deal is made.
President Donald Trump was asked about the second lady’s visit and whether it was a provocation of Denmark and Greenland.
“This is not provocation,” Trump said. “This is friendliness, not provocation. We’re dealing with a lot of people from Greenland that would like to see something happen with respect to it being properly protected and properly taken care of.”
Trump said that “they’re calling us, we’re not calling them” and doubled down on a point he made during his joint address to Congress that acquiring Greenland is a matter of “international security,” not just national security.
Despite some of the public grumblings from Danish politicians about U.S. meddling and media hysteria that Trump really wants to invade, the pathway to American acquisition is clearly opening.
Strongly pro-independence, right-leaning parties won the last set of elections. The party that’s the most in favor of closer ties to America came in second by only a few points.
And the reality is that if Greenland goes “independent” from Denmark, this tiny nation of just 50,000 people is unlikely to chart a new course alone, especially in an age of increasing great power conflict.
The strategic considerations for more U.S. involvement in Greenland are considerable. The economic benefits that overlap with national security concerns are huge too.
For instance, an enormous, high-grade deposit of the critical mineral antimony was discovered in Greenland last November. Antimony is an essential component of car starter batteries. The U.S. has no domestic production of antimony at all and the only potential mine would be insufficient to sustain the country’s needs.
This is a big problem because China currently controls about half the world’s production of antimony and in December banned all exports to the U.S.
While the U.S. has become efficient in recycling batteries, can we really rely on that going forward as China swallows up the antimony market, including potentially what’s in Greenland?
Antimony is just one of many vital minerals in Greenland. Reuters listed some of the others in January, including copper, graphite, nickel, zinc, titanium, tungsten, uranium, and even gold.
According to Reuters, a 2023 survey “showed that 25 of 34 minerals deemed ‘critical raw materials’ by the European Commission were found in Greenland.”
The rare earth mineral deposits, which are likely considerable in Greenland, are of particular interest. Rare earth minerals are essential to the functioning of modern military equipment. The U.S. and Denmark lobbied a major rare earth developer in Greenland to refrain from selling to China-linked companies, according to a Reuters report.
The reality is China is deeply interested in controlling the world’s most important mineral resources. It’s doing this both as a means to boost their own economy, but also to ensure that their national defense industry has large-scale access, and their competitors don’t.
China already tried to move in on Greenland before. The first Trump administration worked to reverse that trend and China retreated.
Greenland’s leaders have insisted they are not interested in a future partnership with China, but how much of a guarantee is that?
When Greenland’s former Prime Minister Kuupik Kleist was asked by the BBC in 2018 about the dangers of Chinese investment, which usually benefit the Chinese Communist Party a lot more than the host country, he said of the money, “We need it, you see.”
Greenland’s economic situation remains the same today. And it’s almost surely why the Trump administration is pushing so hard to acquire the lightly-populated island nation. Forget the public bluster from some of Greenland’s politicians saying that Trump and the second lady aren’t welcome.
What Greenland needs, the U.S. can provide.
This short line from The Economist tells you all you need to know about Greenland’s supposed unwillingness to be acquired by the U.S.: “If America offered merely our crude valuation of the flow of future taxes, it would amount to nearly $1 million per inhabitant. Given the territory’s riches and importance, America could probably make every Greenlander a multimillionaire and still benefit enormously from the purchase.”
Are they really going to turn down that kind of windfall?
The Trump administration is driving a forceful bargain with a good chance it will pay off to the benefit of both parties. The art of the deal.
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