He penned, “With the aim of safeguarding national security and promoting freedom on a global scale, the United States firmly believes that possessing and controlling Greenland is an absolute requisite.”
Is Trump the first U.S. president to attempt to purchase Greenland?
Quite astonishingly, this isn’t the first time the United States has embarked on such an endeavor. There’s a historical precedent. Back in 1946, the United States made an offer to Denmark to buy Greenland for $100 million worth of gold bars.
The details of this attempted acquisition remained classified until 1991. As Time magazine reported, the purchase was then regarded as a “military necessity.” The attempt was repeated the following year, in 1947.
Naturally, the true motives likely extend beyond the purview of national security and venture into the domains of convenience and power. In the context of a world grappling with the impacts of global warming, Greenland is undergoing rapid transformation. While the island isn’t currently teeming with an abundance of resources, the changing climate is gradually revealing more usable land.
In May of that year, Trump’s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, was quoted by Time as saying, “The steady decline in sea ice is carving out new shipping routes and opening up novel trade prospects. This could potentially reduce the travel time between Asia and the West by as much as 20 days. Arctic sea lanes might well emerge as the 21st-century equivalents of the Suez and Panama Canals.”