Donald Trump's Degenerate Plans for Greenland

[Celerity]

The worst president in history wants conquest for its own sake, even if it opens America up to nuclear attack.

https://prospect.org/2026/01/08/donald-trump-greenland-venezuela-denmark/


Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base) in northern Greenland, seen on October 4, 2023. Credit: Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix via AP

The president ordered a successful kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and he seems to be feeling his oats. After months of apparently forgetting about his deranged idea to conquer Greenland by force, it is now back under discussion, and Trump seems to be actually serious this time. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that a “range of options” are under consideration, including “utilizing the U.S. military.” Last summer, I spent over a month reporting on Greenland, including visiting its capital, Nuuk, for over a week, where I talked to all kinds of folks. When I asked about Trump’s annexation threats, the overwhelming reaction was bafflement. What on earth could the point possibly be? What could America possibly get from invasion and annexation that it does not already have?

The answer on any grounds—morality, self-interest, national security, or plain common sense—is: nothing. These are the ravings of a degenerate monster, the worst person ever to occupy high office in this country, who in his dotage is indulging every one of his numerous awful instincts. This idea is entirely cruel, brutish stupidity. Let me first talk about natural resources. In my reporting, I learned that while Greenland does have a lot of mapped mineral deposits, likely very few of these are commercially exploitable. Almost all of the island is buried under hundreds or thousands of feet of ice, and it’s located in one of the most difficult and remote parts of the world. There are no internal roads between the few cities, and many of the sea-lanes are clogged with ice for half the year. The handful of airports are routinely shut down because of fog.

Outside of a few convenient spots, any mining venture would have to build an entire infrastructure complex from scratch—ports, roads, power generation, housing, water treatment, and so on—and still deal with heavy transport costs. In any case, should some deposit prove promising, Greenland would most likely be happy to partner with any interested American company to develop it. In short, Greenland is an exceptionally difficult place to scratch out a living, and it’s taken decades of grinding effort from the island’s residents—and a large ongoing subsidy from the Danish government—for it to develop a reasonably prosperous economy.

Now, Greenland is important for American security, but the U.S. military already has full access to the place, and Trump’s lunatic belligerence might cause untold damage. Indeed, the entire U.S. defense posture since the Second World War takes a working relationship with Denmark, Greenland, and Canada—which Trump has also threatened with violent annexation—entirely for granted. Greenland hosts the Pituffik Space Force base, and more importantly, is part of an elaborate network of military radar installations stretching from western Alaska across northern Canada, Greenland, and Britain that is meant to provide warning of a Russian nuclear attack. It’s a core part of America’s nuclear deterrence strategy: Russia (or anyone else) cannot carry out a successful nuclear first strike to the north because it will be detected in time to launch a retaliatory strike.

snip