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PARIS – At first, we thought it was another of Donald Trump’s whims. He had already expressed it during his first term, amid a stream of statements that sometimes went nowhere. But the U.S. president-elect is very serious: He wants to seize Greenland.
On Tuesday, he took it a step further during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago hotel: He did not rule out the possibility of using force to take Greenland, as well as the Panama Canal, which he demands be returned to the United States. In December, he had already stated that, “for national security and freedom around the world, the United States of America considers the ownership and control of Greenland to be an absolute necessity.”
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And so, who arrived in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland on Tuesday? Donald Trump Jr., the incoming president’s eldest son, came as a simple visitor to record a podcast there. Trump praised his son’s visit by inventing a new tailored slogan on his social media platform Truth: “Make Greenland Great Again.” Trump always mixes seriousness with humor, a way to confuse his opponents.
Not for sale
The problem is that Greenland, although located on the North American continent, has belonged to Denmark since 1814, after being colonized by Norway a thousand years ago. It currently has the status of a “constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark,” managing its own affairs, except for foreign relations and defense, which remain the prerogative of Copenhagen.
To drive the point home, the King of Denmark modified the kingdom’s coat of arms on Jan. 1 to better highlight its possessions, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Danish prime minister, the Social Democrat Mette Fredriksen, has stated to anyone who will listen that “Greenland is not for sale.”
This issue is yet another sign of how Trump treats his allies.
The same sentiment is echoed by the prime minister of Greenland, Múte Egede, a member of the Inuit people and a supporter of the territory’s independence: “Greenland belongs to Greenlanders, our future and our independence are our own matter.”
In other words, the indigenous people of Greenland do not want to break away from Denmark only to fall under the control of the United States.
An imperialist dimension
What is Trump’s motivation? There are certainly the minerals for the ecological transition that lie beneath Greenland’s surface, and which climate change is making more accessible; or the strategic polar issue in light of China’s ambitions, remembering that the United States has always had a military base in Greenland since the Cold War.
But the repeated statements from the president-elect about Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada, which he wants to make the 51st state, go further, giving him an imperial dimension. The United States has never aimed to be an empire, even though its gradual expansion has an imperial appearance. Yet one wing of Trumpism harbors this dream, beyond even what the president-elect expresses.
In wanting to buy Greenland, Trump is not inventing anything. The United States purchased Louisiana from France in 1803, Alaska from Russia in 1867, and even the Virgin Islands in the Pacific from Denmark in 1917.
That era is over, especially because, in the case of Greenland, there are indigenous inhabitants who have a say. This issue is yet another sign of how Trump treats his allies, who have ever more reasons to be concerned.
