Greenland is for “security”? Can China say the same thing about Taiwan?

A few weeks after being elected president for a second time, Donald Trump made a shocking statement. The president-elect chose to announce the appointment of a new ambassador to Denmark on Truth Society, adding: “The United States believes it is absolutely necessary to own and control Greenland for the sake of national security and freedom around the world.”

He made the comments the day before in Arizona. “The fees charged by Panama are ridiculous and extremely unfair; this complete plunder of our country will stop immediately.” Trump said that if freight rates are not reduced, “We will demand the Panama Canal completely, quickly and without question.” Return the land to us.”

Trump refused to rule out using force against Panama to retake the canal and claimed he had the “economic power” to make Canada part of the United States, before talking about what would happen if Denmark did not hand over Greenland to the United States.

Some might try to argue that Trump is transactional and that such threats — like those on tariffs — are simply about restructuring deal terms and balancing the table in a way that benefits U.S. national interests. But this is not the case in the parts of the world where I work, where statements about territorial expansion, recolonization and the use of force are closely watched because they provide avenues for local ambitions: if the United States says it needs Greenland as a “state “Goal”, can China say the same thing about Taiwan? Or Russia’s support for Ukraine and the Baltic states? Or a Middle Eastern country? What about the complex claims across South Asia?

While Trump’s comments are controversial, they are not new. He first expressed interest in buying Greenland in 2019 when he was president. Trump is obsessed with the idea of ​​a “big real estate deal.” However, he was less happy when the Danish Prime Minister called his supposed proposal “ridiculous”. Trump reacted badly, canceling his visit to the country. “I think that’s an inappropriate statement. All she had to do was say no, we wouldn’t be interested,” he said.

But Trump is just the latest in a long line of Americans to set his sights on Greenland, and, for that matter, the latest in a long line of Americans looking to use their wallets to expand the U.S. territory. In the 19th century, the territory of the United States expanded rapidly. Sometimes by force (such as the annexation of Texas at the expense of Mexico); but often by acquisition. The two most famous examples are the Louisiana Purchase, in which the United States purchased nearly 1 million square miles from France for $15 million. To put that into perspective, that’s about three-quarters of the area of ​​India. Then in 1867, the United States purchased more than 500,000 square miles of Alaska from the Russian Empire—this time for $7.2 million.

Around the same time, there were attempts to purchase Greenland from the Kingdom of Denmark—an effort that resurfaced in the early 20th century and again after World War II. In April 1946, State Department official John Hickerson noted that in the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Planning and Strategy Committee, “virtually every member… expressed the view that our real objective with respect to Greenland should be to To get it from Denmark, the committee said owning Greenland could be classified as a “military necessity”. So Trump’s statement this week that “people have been talking about it for a long time” was accurate.

So what happens next?

The Danes rushed to announce an extra €1.3 billion for Greenland and its defense – something they claimed had nothing to do with Trump’s comments. The fact that the Royal Coat of Arms of Denmark changed last month to give more prominence to Greenland and the Faroe Islands (another self-governing Danish territory) is telling.

Greenland will hold elections in the coming months. They are likely to be a prelude to the island becoming an independent state, something the country’s Prime Minister Mutt Egede spoke of in his New Year’s message. “Now is the time for us to take a step ourselves and shape our future,” he said. A draft constitution is also ready.

Trump was not the catalyst for any decision by the people of Greenland – whose numbers are slightly higher than the average IPL match attendance. But U.S. interest would bring investment bonanza to Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and throughout the mineral-rich island. That’s why the president’s son, Donald Jr., flew in Tuesday to survey the scene.

Many believe Trump Jr.’s trip to Greenland was an informal investigation

The world is changing rapidly, and disruption and uncertainty seem to be everywhere. Of course, challenges also bring opportunities – but you need to be brave, lucky and smart to seize the latter rather than conflict with the former.

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