Proposed United States acquisition of Greenland
[17] Denmark in December 2024 announced plans to build up its military presence in Greenland with more personnel, patrol ships, long-range drones, and upgrading an airport to handle Danish F-35 fighter aircraft.
[21] Alex Gray, United States National Security Council chief of staff during the first Trump administration, said Danes "understand they don't have the ability to defend Greenland post independence".
[31][32] Greenlandic governments have said they seek to join NATO as an independent country,[26] welcome increasing United States interest,[33] and do not oppose American military presence if the island benefits from investments in jobs and infrastructure.
[14] Javier Blas of Bloomberg wrote in 2025 that "hyperbole around Greenland and commodities has a 50-year long history", noting that the island had never produced any petroleum and the attempt to mine iron ore ended in bankruptcy.
[43] Minik Thorleif Rosing, one of the 2014 report's authors, in 2025 said that the situation had not changed: "Even if you had an unrealistically high rate of development of mineral resources, it would be unlikely to replace more than half the annual block grant from Denmark in any near future".
[46] Speaking in 2025, Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard of the Danish Institute of International Studies said that the United States had legitimate security concerns in Greenland that Denmark had persistently failed to adequately safeguard.
[59] According to SpaceNews, addressing the matter of Greenland, "any satellite in a polar or sun-synchronous orbit, such as those in critical communications, imagery and weather monitoring constellations, requires an Arctic ground station for consistent tracking, telemetry, and control throughout every revolution".
[63] Two thirds of the planet's fresh water outside Antarctica are frozen in Greenland, and its rock flour has unusually strong ability for soil regeneration and direct air capture of carbon.
[76] Seward wanted to encourage Americans to support a potential purchase offer, so the report very positively described Greenland's "unusual healthfulness" and large amounts of fish, game, and minerals.
[77] In 1868 negotiations by the secretary for purchasing both Greenland and Iceland from Denmark for $5.5 million in gold were reportedly "nearly complete"[78] but Seward made no offer, probably because Congress did not approve a treaty to acquire the Danish West Indies.
[45] Before World War II, the island was part of Rainbow 4, a contingency plan to deal with a siege of North America in which the United States was simultaneously attacked from every direction by every great power.
In Rainbow 4, American forces would preemptively seize all Dutch, Danish, and French possessions in the western hemisphere – including Greenland – and garrison them to form a defensive perimeter around the United States.
According to Jeroen van Dongen, a period of tension between the two countries followed as, despite its desires, "Denmark was clearly not in a position to force the USA to leave Greenland" nor did it have any means at its disposal to deny the U.S. access to the territory.
[103] A scholar wrote in 1950 that, despite official denials of the rumors of an American purchase, because of Greenland's large expense to Denmark and strategic importance, "the potential sale of the island to the United States remains a distinct possibility".
[114] In 1955 the Joint Chiefs nonetheless proposed to Eisenhower that the nation again try to purchase Greenland, writing that "sovereignty provides the firmest basis of assuring that a territory and its resources will be available for military use when needed.
Planned before but occurring after the Trump administration purchase proposal, the United States Navy used hyperspectral imaging over Garðar and the USGS interpreted the data to search for mineral resources.
[142][143] Trump discussed the idea of purchasing Greenland with senior advisers[144][145] and Senator Tom Cotton, who proposed buying the island to Danish ambassador Lars Gert Lose in August 2018.
Former foreign minister Martin Lidegaard of the Danish Social Liberal Party also advised against Greenland negotiating for an American subsidy, as "the United States is not a type of nation that gives something for free".
[13] Kielsen and Frederiksen likely will support additional American bases;[23] Breitenbauch said that because the United States is his country's most important security partner, he described as a nightmare for Denmark the possibility of Trump demanding it choose between fulfilling the Wales Summit Declaration of defense spending as 2% of GDP, or keeping Greenland.
[135] Larsen said in October 2019 that the consulate was part of "a massive charm offensive from the US and 'soft power' in diplomacy", and that because of Danish neglect of its responsibilities in Greenland, a majority on the island might support American annexation in five to ten years.
[170] Espersen in November accused Greenlandic finance minister Vittus Qujaukitsoq of secret bilateral negotiations with American officials, defying Danish authority over foreign and security policy.
[203] Frederiksen's priority is maintaining good relations with the Americans, because of the "Greenland map" barter that has been vital to her country's security for 80 years, and because the United States is Denmark's largest trading partner.
[222] Speaking on 17 January, former chief executive Friis Arne Petersen in the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the situation as "historically unheard of", while Noa Redington, special adviser to former prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, compared the international pressure on Denmark to that during the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy in 2005.
[257] The Economist said of its $50 billion valuation using discounted cash flows—one twentieth of annual US defense spending—or about $1 million to each resident, not including its value to American national security: "Given the territory's riches and importance, America could probably make every Greenlander a multimillionaire and still benefit enormously from the purchase".
[34] Noel Maurer of George Washington University estimated that royalties and mining tax revenues would be worth $16 to $20 billion to the U.S. federal government, net of the cost of continuing the existing Danish subsidy to Greenland.
[15] Writing in The Volokh Conspiracy, Josh Blackman suggested — in a post-acquisition scenario — the United States Congress could place Greenland within the fifth judicial circuit whose judges, he opined, might be more friendly to permitting resource extraction.
[263] Trevor Filseth of The National Interest wrote that in addition to promising that "life in Greenland will remain the same or improve under the American flag" as an autonomous territory, Trump should commit to a subsidy larger than Denmark's and exemption from the Jones Act.
[267] Following a 15 January telephone call with Trump, Frederiksen confirmed the United States' interest in acquisition of Greenland and its commitment to apply punitive, economic sanctions against Denmark until it acquiesced to the transfer of the territory.
[270] Jesper Daugaard Faurby, Danish Country Manager of Atradius, said that a trade war between the United States and European Union could cause the inflation to rise and result in bankruptcies of otherwise healthy companies.
The petition parodied Trump's rhetoric as president, bearing the slogan "Måke Califørnia Great Ægain" and vowing to "bring hygge to Hollywood, bike lanes to Beverly Hills and organic smørrebrød to every street corner.
