The Trump administration stays steadfast in buying Greenland, regardless of the island’s leaders refusing to offer it up as Vice President JD Vance and second woman Usha Vance travel to the nation on Friday.
“We’d like Greenland for nationwide safety and worldwide safety. So, we’ll, I feel, we’ll go so far as we’ve got to go,” President Donald Trump informed reporters on Wednesday.
Vance has touted Greenland’s “unbelievable pure sources” in speeches that decision for the territory’s acquisition for its riches in gold, copper and uncommon earth supplies.
President Donald Trump broadcasts tariffs on auto imports within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington, Mar. 26, 2025.
Mandel Ngan/AFP through Getty Photographs
Trump’s ambitions aren’t far-fetched, based on a world relations knowledgeable who informed ABC Information that there are some avenues by which the U.S. may realistically purchase the autonomous Danish territory.
Nonetheless, worldwide coverage, legal guidelines and decades-long financial and political partnerships make Trump’s needs extraordinarily unbelievable, based on Phillip Lipscy, professor of political science on the College of Toronto.
“This sort of rhetoric hasn’t been a part of U.S. overseas policymaking since World Battle II,” he informed ABC Information. “If the USA strikes ahead with this, this could be a recreation changer.”
Lipscy famous that whereas buying Greenland would bolster the U.S.’s safety within the Arctic Circle, such a transfer isn’t wanted due to NATO nations’ robust army and naval presence.
Annexation isn’t new in U.S. historical past, going again to the Louisiana Buy in 1803, when the usacquired a significant portion of what’s now the central a part of the nation was acquired in a take care of France.
The final time that the U.S. was given land that grew to become territories was when it acquired three Pacific Ocean island teams as a part of the post-World Battle II settlement with the United Nations in 1947 often called the Belief Territory of the Pacific Islands.
That deal took years of negotiating and an settlement from a number of nations who labored out the geopolitical panorama of post-war Oceania.
Solely a type of island teams, the Marianas Islands, stays a U.S. territory.
Lipscy stated such offers between sovereign nations have dwindled over the a long time in change for agreements corresponding to restricted army partnerships, commerce offers and different treaties, which take far much less time and assist maintain the sovereignty of countries.
Vice President JD Vance stands along with his spouse Usha Vance as they participate in a tour of the Dachau Focus Camp memorial web site in Dachau, southern Germany, oFeb. 13, 2025.
Tobias Schwarz/AFP through Getty Photographs
Trump and the U.S. must negotiate with Denmark’s authorities for a sale or an annexation of Greenland if he have been to take over the land with out violating worldwide legislation or utilizing the army to take the nation by power.
Greenland’s politics are already making any such negotiation troublesome, based on Lipscy.
Greenland is a self-sovereign territory of Denmark with its personal elected authorities, with Denmark’s parliament dealing with worldwide issues.
There was a motion inside the island to be unbiased from Denmark that shall be a key consider any future plans of a U.S. acquisition, based on Lipscy.
“Actually, there could also be a diplomatic resolution that begins with an unbiased Greenland…however it’s troublesome to see that scenario,” he stated.
In elections earlier this month, pro-independence events received essentially the most seats in parliament however neither need to be a part of the U.S. Greenland is now forming a coalition authorities within the wake of the election.
Greenland’s authorities and its residents have loudly protested Trump since he started speaking about buying it in December. He floated the thought earlier in his first time period in 2019 however did not pursue it.
“Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders. We aren’t People, we aren’t Danes as a result of we’re Greenlanders. That is what the People and their leaders want to know. We can’t be purchased and we can’t be ignored,” Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Bourup Egede stated in a Fb publish earlier this month.
Greenlandic Prime Minister, chairman of the Inuit Ataqatigiit social gathering Mute Bourup Egede arrives on the polling station in the course of the parliamentary election on the Godthaabshallen sports activities corridor, in Nuuk, Greenland, Mar. 11, 2025.
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Egede additionally referred to as Friday’s go to by the Vances and different U.S. officers, together with nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz and Power Secretary Chris Wright, a part of a “very aggressive American stress towards the Greenlandic group” and referred to as for the worldwide group to rebuke it.
The Danish authorities has additionally pushed again exhausting on Trump’s calls to amass Greenland and has inspired its residents to talk out towards it.
“They know properly that Greenland is not on the market. They know properly that Greenland would not need to be part of the USA,” Danish Prime Mette Frederiksen stated in an announcement Wednesday.
“The eye is overwhelming and the stress is nice. Nevertheless it’s in occasions like these that you simply present what cloth you are fabricated from. You have not let yourselves be cowed. You’ve got stood up for who you might be – and you’ve got proven what you stand for. It has my deepest respect,” she added.
Frederiksen stated that different European nations are additionally on Denmark’s aspect on this back-and-forth with Trump, already hampering the ties between the U.S. and its allies since Trump regained workplace.
Lipscy stated that such a purchase order would take a very long time and would probably stretch lengthy past Trump’s time period, particularly if the Greenland and Danish management and their individuals proceed to reject Trump’s calls.
If Trump continued to disregard the desires of Greenland and Denmark, it could additionally pressure these relationships and have an effect on financial, nationwide safety and political alliances which were in place because the finish of World Battle II, Lipscy stated.
Folks participate in a march ending in entrance of the US consulate, below the slogan, Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic individuals, in Nuuk, Greenland, Mar. 15, 2025.
Christian Klindt Soelbeck/Ritzau Scanpix through AP
“It might sign the U.S. can now not be trusted to be a dependable accomplice and maintain worldwide norms,” he stated. “Nobody would need to do any sort of deal, partnership or negotiation.”
Trump has refused to rule out army motion to take over Greenland, however Lipscy stated {that a} full-on army acquisition would additionally not sit properly within the home and worldwide political area and, most significantly, among the many American individuals.
A ballot launched by the Wall Road Journal days earlier than Trump returned to the White Home discovered that 68% of People opposed the thought.
“The thought of territorial growth is coming predominantly from the president himself and there is no widespread settlement on buying from the general public or the Republican Occasion,” Lipscy stated.
Protesters maintain a banner studying “Yankee Go House” throughout a march to the U.S. consulate throughout an illustration, below the slogan ‘Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic individuals’, in Nuuk, Greenland, Mar. 15, 2025.
Christian Klindt Soelbeck/Scanpix/AFP through Getty Photographs
He predicted that whereas Trump could also be “banging the desk” extra to make his purpose a actuality, it received’t transfer the needle past his base as a result of most of the people is aware of that such a transfer can be pricey and in the end not assist nationwide safety.
“I feel even when the last word purpose of the U.S. authorities is to safe nearer ties with Greenland, the way in which the administration goes about with its policymaking is deeply counterproductive and unlikely to get the outcome they’re looking for,” he stated.
