Trump adds Greenland to list of places he wants the US to own - but why?

His inauguration is still less than a month away, but Donald Trump is continuing to offer signs of just how extreme his second term will be by declaring he’s got his eyes set on the United States owning Greenland.

Yes, really.

Making “Yakko’s World” from Animaniacs sound like a personal shopping list, Trump has already suggested that the United States could seize control of Panama (the canal, more specifically), Mexico and Canada.

Haiti, Jamaica and Peru up next, Donald?

Now though, a lengthy announcement from the president-elect about his pick for US ambassador to Denmark – PayPal co-founder and former ambassador for Sweden, Ken Howery - has got many people worried.

“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” he wrote.

Wait, what?

Trump has taken an interest in Greenland before…

Trump is reported to have talked about buying Greenland from Denmark back in 2019, when two sources told the Wall Street Journal that the then president tasked his White House counsel to explore the feasibility of buying the island.

According to the outlet, Trump asked at the time: “What do you guys think about that? Do you think it would work?”

Danes and residents of Greenland reacted with both mockery and horror at the suggestion, with Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, a politician representing Greenland in the Danish parliament, writing “no thanks to Trump buying Greenland” in a post to Twitter/X.

And then, in 2022, it emerged that the idea was reportedly suggested to Trump by cosmetics heir Ronald S Lauder.

Trump told reporters Peter Baker (New York Times chief White House correspondent) an Susan Glasser (CNN global affairs analyst), for their book The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021: “I said, ‘Why don’t we have that?’ You take a look at a map. I’m a real estate developer, I look at a corner, I say, ‘I’ve got to get that store for the building that I’m building,’ etc. It’s not that different.”

He also reportedly said to John Botlon, then his national security adviser: “A friend of mine - a really, really experienced businessman – thinks we can get Greenland. What do you think?”

It was reported Bolton asked aide Fiona Hill to put a team together to assess the benefits of purchasing Greenland.

What are America’s links to Greenland?

It has the Thule Air Base on the island which it uses to detect potential intercontinental ballistic missile threats against North America, and the agreement to set that up on the island came about in 1951 – five years after US President Harry Truman’s $100 million offer to buy Greenland was rejected by Denmark.

According to Visit Greenland, Danish envoy Henrik Kauffman defied Denmark’s government and signed the ‘Greenland Treaty’ in 1941, transferring the responsibility for the defence of Greenland to the United States.

America had airbases in Kangerlussuaq and Narsarsuaq, but control of these locations was later relinquished by the country.

Greenland became a country of Denmark in 1953 when its status as a Danish colony was abolished, and was granted its own parliament in 1979, before self-government was out into effect in 2009.

And what has Trump said about other countries?

Finally, to recap other recent developments: Trump officials have asked “how much should we invade Mexico”; the president-elect himself has trolled Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau by suggesting the country would make a great “51st state”; and demanded the Panama Canal “be returned” to America if it does not address the fees it charges US vessels.

Looks like we’re in for a long four years…

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