Trump Administration Still Insistent on Buying Greenland

By: Nadia Commodore

Since the beginning of President Trump’s second term, the administration has continued to make claims about the US’ need to gain control of Greenland. 

According to MSNBC, Vice-President JD Vance, along with the national security adviser, Michael Waltz, and the energy secretary, Chris Wright, took a three-hour trip last Friday to a US military base in Greenland, the Pituffik Space Base. During the excursion, Vance gave a brief press conference attempting to convince viewers that the U.S. is better for Greenland’s security than the Danish. 

“We respect the self-determination of the people of Greenland, but my argument again to them is I think that you’d be a lot better having — coming under the United States’ security umbrella than you have been under Denmark’s security umbrella,” Vance said, according to MSNB. 

Reuters reported that Greenland natives are less than happy about the United States’ advances, as Greenlanders have produced some of the largest protests in the history of the territory. 

Kameryn Hubbard, an HU first-year psychology major on the pre-law track, shared her confusion with the Trump administration’s mindset. 

“In America,” she said, “we’re so heavy on ‘if you’re not wanted here– like, if we don’t want you here, then go.’ So why wouldn’t that correlate universally?”

According to the BBC, Trump is not the only president in U.S. history who has tried to obtain Greenland, nor is this the first time Trump himself has made the effort. Marc Jacobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College, said to BBC:

"If Russia were to send missiles towards the US, the shortest route for nuclear weapons would be via the North Pole and Greenland. That's why the Pituffik Space Base is immensely important in defending the US."

Kevin Jones, an HU first-year political science major with a leadership studies minor on the pre-law track, shared his thoughts on the international conflict. 

“I feel like Trump’s pursuit of Greenland is [foreshadowing] how he wants to handle diplomacy in his second term… During his first term, he was cuddling up to dictators, studying their tactics, claiming that he just wanted to, you know, know our friends and get to know our enemies closer so we can know their next moves.”

Jones expressed that if the Trump administration decided to move forward with their plans, military force would be necessary. “They would be annexing Greenland because they would be taking it by force, just like Russia is trying to do with Ukraine.”