President Trump's long-term goal is to declare the United States that Greenland has shifted from speech to official U.S. policy as the White House is developing a formal plan to acquire the Arctic Island from Denmark.
The plan mobilized Mr. Trump’s years of talk about wanting Greenland’s cabinet sector, whose economic and strategic value melted the Arctic ice with warm temperatures.
Greenland's size (836,330 square miles) also offers Mr. Trump (formerly Manhattan developer) the opportunity to see him as one of the greatest real estate deals in history.
Danish officials angrily insisted that the sparsely populated islands are not for sale and cannot be annexed. But Mr. Trump has made it clear that he is determined to control it.
“We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we are working with everyone involved to get it,” he said in a congressional speech last month.
Mr Trump added: “One way or another, we will get it.”
According to U.S. officials, the White House's National Security Council has met several times to put Mr. Trump's words into action and recently sent specific instructions to several weapons from the administration.
The full details of the plan are not clear. The official said that despite Mr. Trump's morals about possible use of force, the Security Council's deliberations never seriously considered military options.
Instead, the policy emphasizes persuasiveness of coercion and adopts a public relations effort aimed at convincing Greenland’s population of 57,000 who should ask for joining the United States.
Mr. Trump’s advisers have discussed using advertising and social media campaigns to make public opinion on the island, according to another person briefing the matter.
It could be an uphill battle. In an election last month, an opposition party favored rapid independence and closer ties to the United States, winning only a second place, but only a quarter of the vote.
The official said the messaging campaign in the United States will include an attraction to the heritage shared by Greenlanders with nearly 2,500 miles of Alaska locals.
Greenland's Inuit population is descended from people who migrated hundreds of years ago from Alaska, and the official language of the island comes from the Inuit dialect that originated in the Canadian Arctic.
Mr. Trump’s advisers have begun public lawsuits, believing that Denmark has been the poor of the island, that only the United States can protect it from Russia and China, and that, as Trump has said, the United States will help Greenlanders “get rich.”
The Trump administration also reminded Greenland that the United States had previously defended this.
Last month, Mr. Trump posted a sleek 90-second video on social media, celebrating the “blood and heroic” of U.S. troops serving on the island during World War II to prevent fear of Nazi invasion after Germany occupied Denmark.
Although Denmark hopes that the U.S. troops will leave after the war, they never did so, and the United States is still maintaining military bases there.
The Trump administration is also looking at Greenland's economic incentives, including the possibility of replacing the $600 million subsidy donated by Denmark to the island, with payments per Greenland of about $10,000.
Some Trump officials believe that these costs may be offset by the extraction of Greenland's natural resources, including rare earth minerals, copper, gold, uranium and oil.
Trump officials believe that the U.S. capital and industry may be able to access the island’s undeveloped mineral wealth in ways that Denmark cannot. “It's about key minerals,” Michael Waltz, a national security adviser for Mr. Trump, told Fox News in January. “It's about natural resources.”
However, analysts do not generally agree that profiting from mining in the island’s still in cumbersome areas will be simple. It could be tough when Mr. Trump appoints Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest man, to cut the federal government by $1 trillion, and explains the huge spending of American voters.
Mr. Trump’s interest in Greenland is nothing new: he was serious enough in his first term to accuse national security officials of exploring the idea. But after he began discussing it publicly, Greenland officials refused, and Mr. Trump did not pursue the idea, which was seen as a wild fantasy.
Since the second election last fall, Mr. Trump has restored his wishes with a more enthusiastic attitude. He asked the assistant to say, “Let's finish it.”
“President Trump believes that Greenland is a strategically important geographical location and that Greenland is confident that it will be protected by the United States to protect the United States from modern threats in the Arctic,” said Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
Mr Hughes noted that Mr. Walz and Vice President JD Vance recently visited Greenland and “explained important cases of building long-term peace between Greenland and the United States and sharing prosperity abroad.”
Some analysts say the idea of incorporating Greenland into the United States or at least creating a closer connection to the island is less ridiculous than it sounds.
This is mainly due to climate change, which melts the rich resources of the region and makes them more viable commercially. Higher temperatures have also opened new maritime routes through the Arctic for commercial transport as well as Chinese and Russian military vessels.
But Mr. Trump vowed “one or another way” to control Greenland in much of the world like Primitive Imperialism, and his talk about recapturing the Panama Canal and even annexing Canada. If the administration's persuasiveness fails, it seems likely that Mr. Trump will escalate his tactics.
Several U.S. presidents have considered trying to acquire Greenland. During World War II, the Nazi threat to the island's threat, the Truman government provided Denmark with $1 billion in 1946.
Denmark has put different forms of control over Greenland for centuries and accepted it as part of its kingdom in 1953. Today, Greenland manages its own Ministry of Home Affairs, with Denmark’s budget at a maximum of 60%, which also manages its defense and foreign policy. Many leaders of Greenland’s leaders support independence, but vary in how long it should be and whether it is close to the United States.
As far as Denmark's leaders were concerned, they were shocked and angry at Mr. Trump's talk about buying or occupying the island, insisting that Greenland must be free to determine its destiny. During his visit to Greenland last week, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen condemned the Trump administration’s “pressure and threat”, saying “you can’t annex another country.”
Amid fierce resistance in Denmark, the Trump administration is turning to the direct courtship of the Greenland group.
Speaking to the people of Greenland, Mr. Trump said: “We strongly support your right to determine your future and we welcome you into the United States of America if you wish.”
“We will keep you safe,” he said. “We will keep you rich.”
Mr. Vance issued a similar note when he visited the island's U.S. military base on March 28.
There, Mr. Vance told reporters that Greenlanders “choose independent of Denmark through self-determination and then we will have a dialogue with the people of Greenland.”
Mr. Trump and his senior officials have not yet publicly established a link between the Greenland Inuit population and the American Inuit in Alaska, as envisioned in the National Security Council approved plan.
However, Robert O'Brien pointed out this dynamic in December, one of Mr. Trump's first national security advisers.
Denmark, Mr O'Brien said in an interview with Fox News: “We can buy Greenland from it, Greenland can be a part of Alaska. I mean, the indigenous people of Greenland are closely related to the people of Alaska and we will be a part of Alaska.”
It is not clear how much resonance this information will have on the island. Although Alaskas share profits from their state oil wealth with residents in the form of annual checks, their Inuit people suffer disproportionately poverty and poor health.
Danish leaders believe that the U.S. pressure movement is already hurting the U.S. post-World War II alliance with Denmark.
“We have looked up to you,” Ms. Frederiksen said during a visit to Greenland this month. “You inspired us. You have been alert to the free world.”
She added: “But when you ask for a portion of the Kingdom’s territory (when we are under pressure and threats), do we think of the country we admire for so many years?”
