|
One of the odder initiatives of Donald Trump’s second term has been his fixation on the idea of annexing Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. “We need Greenland for national security and even international security,” he said in a speech before Congress in March. “One way or the other, we’re going to get it.” Later that month, Vice President JD Vance traveled to the island and accused Denmark of mismanagement: “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” he said, though he also claimed that America would not send in troops—at least not for now.
Then in May, Trump threatened to seize Greenland by force. “Something could happen with Greenland, I’ll be honest,” he said on Meet the Press.
The reason for this obsession is anybody’s guess. After all, Greenland is already a NATO ally, and the U.S. military already has a large base in its far north. My personal theory is that he has been looking at Mercator projection maps, which exaggerate the size of Greenland by about a factor of 14 (it looks roughly the size of Africa, when it’s actually smaller than Argentina) and thinking it would be nice to paint all that ice red, white, and blue. Wars of aggression are, after all, a typical characteristic of fascists.
But then Trump seemed to forget all about it. He stopped threatening Denmark and posting about it on Truth Social, and moved on to occupying liberal American cities.
Yet at least some in MAGA-world have not forgotten about Trump’s fantasies of conquest. In August, Danish media reported that Trump-associated figures had been conducting “influence operations” as part of a possible effort to split Greenland away from Denmark and pave the way for an American takeover. Denmark’s foreign minister summoned the American chargé d’affaires there (as Senate Republicans had not yet confirmed his nomination for Danish ambassador) for a dressing-down.
I traveled to Greenland around that time, and alas, I did not see any steroidal bearded types furtively casing the parliament building. But I wasn’t there to report on Trump’s lunatic imperialism. I was there because of a peculiar characteristic of Greenland’s economy: the state’s extensive portfolio of companies. |
