How a billionaire with interests in Greenland encouraged Trump to acquire the territory

[Kid Berwyn]

What little donnie wants, donnie gets -- and you won't hear the end of it until he does or goes to prison, where he belongs with the other criminals, gangsters and traitors.



How a billionaire with interests in Greenland encouraged Trump to acquire the territory

US president’s friend Ronald Lauder – who first proposed Arctic expansion – is now making deals in the island

by Tom Burgis
The Guardian, January 15, 2026

One day during his first term, Donald Trump summoned a top aide to discuss a new idea. “Trump called me down to the Oval Office,” John Bolton, national security adviser in 2018, told the Guardian. “He said a prominent businessman had just suggested the US buy Greenland.”

It was an extraordinary proposal. And it originated from a longtime friend of the president who would go on to acquire business interests in the Danish territory.

The businessman, Bolton learned, was Ronald Lauder. Heir to a makeup fortune – the global cosmetics brand Estée Lauder – he had known Trump, a fellow wealthy New Yorker, for more than 60 years.

Snip...

Trump’s renewed pursuit of Lauder’s idea during his second term is typical of how the president operates, Bolton said. “Bits of information that he hears from friends, he takes them as truth and you can’t shake his opinion.”

Snip...

Like many of those around the president, Lauder’s policy suggestions appear to intersect with his business interests. As Trump has ratcheted up his threats to seize Greenland, Lauder has acquired commercial holdings there. Lauder is also part of the consortium whose desire to access Ukrainian minerals appears to have spurred Trump to demand a share of the war-torn country’s resources.

Continues...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/15/ronald-lauder-billionaire-donor-donald-trump-ukraine-greenland

[Doodley]

1. This is corruption at a whole new level: starting or supporting wars just to make a buck.

[AZJonnie]

3. It's a new level in terms of the embarrassingly thin veneer proffered as justification

It's far from a new thing to start or support wars just to make a buck, though

[Kid Berwyn]

5. GOP Traditionally the Merchants of Death

The Plot to Sieze the White House

by Jules Archer

Hawthorn Books: New York
244 pp.

Smedley Darlington Butler (1881-1940) blew the whistle on the little- known plot of the title. He was on public television the fall of 1993 in "The Road to Rock Bottom"--Part 2 of The Great Depression series (Blackside production). Near the end it shows Butler in shirtsleeves, urging on 10,000 of the war veterans who had marched to Washington and camped in Anacostia DC. It was July 1932. The Bonus Army asked for early payment of moneys promised for 1945. "Some were the same men who had fought under Smedley Butler in the Spanish-American War, the Philippines campaign, the Boxer Rebellion, ...Caribbean interventions, the Chinese intervention of 1927-8, and World War I" (p 3).

Butler, a major general at 48, retired from the Marine Corps in 1931. He had faced gunfire 120 times. Columnist Will Rogers wrote of Butler, "He is what I would call a natural born warrior. He will fight anybody, any time....He carries every medal we ever gave out. He has two Congressional Medals of Honor....You give him another war and he will get him another one....I do admire him" (p 116).

Except the two years in China, Butler spent the last third of his service in police work and administration. During this time a disillusion with war spread through Europe and America. The mood fed on books like ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT and MERCHANTS OF DEATH.

August 21, 1931, Butler spoke to an American Legion convention in New Britain CT. Looking back, he reflected on his career. His remarks stunned the audience. Few papers dared report even part of the speech:

"I spent 33 years...being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism....

"I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1916. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City boys to collect revenue in. I helped in the rape of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street....

"In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested....I had...a swell racket. I was rewarded with honors, medals, promotions....I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate a racket in three cities. The Marines operated on three continents..." (p 118).

CONTINUED...

http://www.eclectica.org/v1n1/reviews/wharton_plot.html

[AZJonnie]

2. So, boycott Estee Lauder if you were not already!

[Kid Berwyn]

6. First off, no more Smoke and Brighten Kajal Eyeliner Duo for J.D.

Couchhumper is gonna have to go makeup free.

[Irish_Dem]

4. How much is the billionaire paying Trump for Greenland.

[Kid Berwyn]

7. If you gotta ask, ya can't afford it.

Lookit how big Clarence Thomas lives these days, thanks to Harlan Crow and his poor, underserved oligarch brethren.

(Dumb traitor thinks he owns the Prevost he drives, for mint's sake.)

[Irish_Dem]

13. Buying a United States Supreme Court Justice is not cheap.

[Kid Berwyn]

10. One thing: Ronald Lauder wanted to sell Greenland's ice melt...

...free water for him to bottle up and sell to the masses. Did not go so well.

The battle for Greenland: The billionaire behind Donald Trump’s obsession

Ronald Lauder, heir to Estée Lauder fortune, seems to have invested in a boutique water company based in a mouldy, former school

by Derek Scally in Nuuk, Greenland
The Irish Times, January 15, 2026

Excerpt...

One entrance has been decorated with penis graffiti; in another, where the door’s window panes should be, two words are sprayed on chipboard: “F**k of [sic]”.

This building in Greenland’s capital Nuuk has seen better days, but it might yet have a future.

Company records suggest this is the official address of Greenland Water Bank, a boutique drinks company with a new co-owner: US billionaire Ronald Lauder.

He is not just son and heir of cosmetics queen Esteé Lauder, the 81-year-old lawyer is a close confidant of Donald Trump. And, according to some, he is the one who put the Greenland flea in the president’s ear.

Snip...

Some, like tech investor Peter Thiel of PayPal and Palantir, dream of setting up a new post-nation state settlement in somewhere like Greenland; others dream of extracting valuable minerals from beneath the vast, icy territory. But what is Ronald Lauder up to?

Continues...

https://www.irishtimes.com/world/europe/2026/01/15/an-abandoned-building-a-billionaire-trump-pal-and-the-battle-for-greenland/

Guy must love Putin like he loves Trump.

[Irish_Dem]

12. The world is being taken over by evil, corrupt billionaires and politicians.

[Initech]

8. If Europe cuts ties with us because of this fucking maniac, we know who to blame!

Fuck you Ronald Lauder. Fuck you to hell.

[Kid Berwyn]

9. No NATO, Putin wins.

And that little fucker was toast, until Nov. 6, 2024.

[RedWhiteBlueIsRacist]

11. Is Lauder the guy that said Hitler "got things done"?