Greenland Is Next

To Trump, it's another international smash-and-grab. Greenlanders want something better.

Last March, when I was still working for ABC News, I traveled to Greenland. It was back when President Trump had only been in office about two months, and had just declared his intention to “get” Greenland, “one way or the other.” As Vice President JD Vance flew in and out after visiting for a few hours a US military base in the sparsely populated far north of the island, my team stayed behind and asked Greenlanders in Nuuk—the capital city—what they thought of the sudden American spotlight.

What I heard—over and over—was not anti-Americanism. Not at all. It was something older and deeper: The insistence that this place, their homeland, is not an object to be acquired.

One man put it plainly to me: Greenland is not for sale—“never has been…never will be.” Another, when I asked him what he would tell President Trump, went further: you can’t “control” or “own” another country, he said. Greenland has self-determination and “nobody can tell us what to do.”

Off camera, I heard something more disturbing. Trump’s threats of a US takeover had truly rattled people. A mom with her son at a grocery store told me she was actually losing sleep; a prosperous-looking businessman said he couldn’t think of anything else but the prospect that the US could simply seize his homeland. “We wake up one morning and we could do nothing.”

That was before the new escalation: Stephen Miller declaring to Jake Tapper on CNN that “Greenland should be part of the United States.” President Trump now repeatedly refusing to rule out military force. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other officials circulating plans to “buy” Greenland, “acquire” it, or go around Denmark and cut a deal directly with Greenlanders.

A lot of people—including many Republican officials—once laughed it all off as Trump being Trump and “owning the libs.” And even now, there’s no doubt Trump and his team are loving every minute of this: the imperial cosplay, Katie Miller (Stephen’s wife) posting a map of Greenland with the adolescent “SOON” blazoned over it. We are governed by an administration of trolls.

But after what we’ve just seen Trump do in Venezuela—open contempt for sovereignty and law, wrapped in the language of “security”—Greenland isn’t a joke.

Greenland is next.

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The strategic argument is real

OK, let’s acknowledge a bit of 21st Century reality: If you strip away the trolling, there is a serious case for why Greenland matters more than ever to the United States and to our European allies. Let’s break it down:

• Geography and missile defense. Greenland sits on the shortest arc between North America and Russia. That’s not a trivia fact; it’s the geometry of early warning and deterrence.

• Pituffik Space Base (Thule). The U.S. already has a critical installation there. In a world of hypersonics and space competition, the value of Arctic basing and Arctic communications only grows.

• The Arctic is opening. Melting sea ice means new sea lanes, more activity, and more friction—commercial and military. Russia and China are already probing for advantage, and both see the high north as a domain where the rules can be bent.

• Critical minerals. Greenland’s mineral potential, including rare earths, has become part of the strategic conversation everywhere—because dependency on China is a genuine vulnerability.

American policy starts here: Greenland matters. The United States should treat the Arctic as a priority—militarily, economically, technologically, and diplomatically.

But that’s exactly why Trump’s approach is so destructive.

Trump’s language—take it, buy it, acquire it, control it—sounds tough. In practice it’s a gift to America’s adversaries. Bellowing that you’re going to “take control” of Greenland—allies be damned—is not tough, it’s dumb. True strategic malpractice.

Why? You don’t “secure” the Arctic by detonating NATO. Denmark is a NATO ally. Greenland is part of the Danish realm. Threatening to seize territory from an ally is both disgraceful and self-harming. Denmark may be a small nation, but it punches above its weight. Danish Army units are highly trained and quickly deployable—and they fight. They have served in combat roles in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, and Africa. Scorning them—stealing their sovereign territory—is just pouring acid on the one force multiplier the U.S. cannot replace: trusted, impactful alliances.

And this point should be obvious: You cannot build influence in Greenland by humiliating Greenlanders.

One thing I heard a lot from people when I was there is that Greenland has a long history of being bossed around, spoken for, and abused by outsiders—first as colony, then as a remote territory whose fate is negotiated in capitals far away. Trump has already succeeded in activating every colonial memory people there have. It doesn’t make Greenlanders feel “protected.” It makes them feel targeted.

America already has better options

Also, Trump’s approach will cost more—a lot more—pointlessly. Right now, if the U.S. wants better basing rights, more infrastructure, more mineral development, and a stronger Arctic presence, it can get those things—cheaper and faster—through agreement. Greenlanders I spoke with are open to all of that.

But a Trump “takeover” is the most expensive route: it will trigger massive diplomatic backlash, maybe end NATO, spur thorny legal conflicts for any investors, and, in the worst case, could lead to military confrontation. All to obtain what could have been negotiated.

The tragedy is that America could achieve Trump’s goals and more without threatening anyone. But Trump doesn’t do partnership. He does dominance.

Trump’s foreign policy is how great powers stumble into disasters: not because they lack strength, but because they waste it—creating enemies where they could have had partners, and turning rivalries into zero-sum crises. As Trump and his team gleefully tear down the international system that, for all its many flaws, helped make America rich and powerful, respected and trusted, it is obvious what is going to happen. Our allies are already “de-coupling” and “de-risking” from our economy and our partnerships, planning quickly for a world where the US is simply not reliable. And our adversaries? Now they see that the rules are really dead—killed by Trump—it’s party time for the autocrats.

Greenland is a strategic prize, yes. But in this moment, that rugged, beautiful land has also become a mirror. It reflects what kind of country the United States intends to be in the 21st Century.

—Terry