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Politico Magazine: Trump's Still Talking About Buying Greenland. Here's Where That's Headed.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/03/01/trump-buy-greenland-video-00206552Trump’s Still Talking About Buying Greenland. Here’s Where That’s Headed.
Our reporter breaks down what’s really going on in the Arctic.
By BEN SCHRECKINGER
03/01/2025 10:00 AM EST
Of all the priorities Donald Trump has set since returning to power, his fixation on Greenland has ranked among the most mystifying.
The president’s insistence that the U.S. should “own and control” the world’s largest island has unsettled its inhabitants and inspired his allies to imagine it as America’s 51st state. It has also raised a host of questions about why and how a possible U.S.-Greenland union could come to be.
…
Why Greenland? What’s in it for the United States?
Well, it’s really big. It’s not so far from the U.S. — it’s actually 13 miles from Canada at their closest point, and it’s strategically located in the Arctic. Arctic ice has been melting. Russia has become more active in that region. China, though it’s not an Arctic nation, has also become more active in the Arctic. So, the United States has a military and strategic interest in having a greater presence in that part of the Arctic. There’s already an important American air base in the north of the island, and in the south of the island there are deposits of rare earth minerals. As the world seems to be de-globalizing to an extent — and strategic economic blocs are forming — a source of rare earth minerals that is not in China, that’s near the United States is potentially very valuable.
President Trump, so far, hasn’t directly articulated those strategic goals, though some in his administration have.
…
Our reporter breaks down what’s really going on in the Arctic.
By BEN SCHRECKINGER
03/01/2025 10:00 AM EST
Of all the priorities Donald Trump has set since returning to power, his fixation on Greenland has ranked among the most mystifying.
The president’s insistence that the U.S. should “own and control” the world’s largest island has unsettled its inhabitants and inspired his allies to imagine it as America’s 51st state. It has also raised a host of questions about why and how a possible U.S.-Greenland union could come to be.
…
Why Greenland? What’s in it for the United States?
Well, it’s really big. It’s not so far from the U.S. — it’s actually 13 miles from Canada at their closest point, and it’s strategically located in the Arctic. Arctic ice has been melting. Russia has become more active in that region. China, though it’s not an Arctic nation, has also become more active in the Arctic. So, the United States has a military and strategic interest in having a greater presence in that part of the Arctic. There’s already an important American air base in the north of the island, and in the south of the island there are deposits of rare earth minerals. As the world seems to be de-globalizing to an extent — and strategic economic blocs are forming — a source of rare earth minerals that is not in China, that’s near the United States is potentially very valuable.
President Trump, so far, hasn’t directly articulated those strategic goals, though some in his administration have.
…
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