LOS ANGELES.–All the U.S. press outrage about 78-year-old President-elect Donald Trump saying he’d like to buy Greenland, a new Greenland Patriot poll finds that 57.3% of the public would like to join the United States. Surprised Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede said Greenland would like to stay independent but said he would welcome an opportunity to speak with Trump, meaning there’s probably room for the U.S. to play a bigger role, perhaps a military deal where the U.S. would enter into a Mutual Defense Treaty. Russian President Vladimir Putin said recently that he had been eyeing Greenland for some time, believing it fit with Russian prerogative to control the earth’s Arctic region. Egede knows that if Putin decided to roll his military into Greenland, Denmark would do nothing to defends the largest island in the Arctic Circle.
Trump said Greenland was an “absolute necessity” for U.S. national security, with Putin eyeing the territory knowing that nothing would deter Putin except the United States. Whatever autonomy Greenland wants, Trump isn’t looking at making Greenland the 51st state, at least not yet but welcomes the opportunity to expand missile defense operations at the Thule Air Base in Northwestern Greenland. Trump started the Space Force Dec. 20, 2019, something dismissed by Democrats as all hype because they disparage anything initiated by Trump even though criticized by Biden and Harris in 2020, they fully funded the Space Force, now considered a vital part of the U.S. military. Expanding not only Space Force but also the U.S. Navy in Greenland would help assure Greenland’s independence. Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredericksen dismissed the idea of Trump buying Greenland.
Greenland was granted independence by Denmark in 1979, then given the right to self governance in 2008. Greenland’s 57,000 population is largely Inuit, the same genetic ties to Canadian and Alaskan native populations, with its national language related to the Inuit language, Greenlandic, not Danish. Denmark never succeeded in populating Greenland with most Danish people preferring to stay more closely attached to Copenhagen, a major European capital. With the U.S. President Andrew Johnson acquiring Alaska in 1867 from Russian Czar Nicholas for $7.2 million, the U.S. has a good century-and-half of assimilating Inuit people into the American way of life. Acquiring Greenland would be a perfect fit for the U.S., know how to get along with native populations. Trump’s ideas were reinforced in the recent Patriot poll that showed only 34% of the population oppose the U.S. acquisition.
So, when it comes to working to bring Greenland under a U.S. security umbrella, there’s more receptivity that meets the eye, especially with Secretary State Antony Blinken saying it’s not feasible and won’t happen. Blinken has been on the wrong side of every U.S. foreign policy mistake during his four years reign in the Biden administration. When he came out the gate March 18, 2021 with his first summit in Anchorage, Alaska with Communist China, Blinken accused Chinese President Xi Jinping of committing genocide on Muslim Uyghurs in Western China. If that weren’t bad enough, Blinken accused Xi of cracking down on a pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, violating the July 7, 1997 agreement assuring Hong Kong independence after the U.K. returned the British Crown Colony to Beijing. So, when it comes to Blinken, he’s not credible.
Trump was onto something thinking that Greenland would like to affiliate as a territory of the United States, if, for no other reason, to gain U.S. military protection, knowing what Russia did in Ukraine. According to Biden and Ukraine’s 46-year-old President Volodymyr Zelensky, Putin has his eyes on more European countries, so it’s not inconceivable he could see Greenland as part of Russia’s strategic plans. Biden was willing to fund proxy war in Ukraine, ending decades of diplomacy, détente and arms control with the Russian Federation, all to support Ukraine’s right to sovereignty and territorial integrity. Putin doesn’t see it the same way as the U.S. or international community, looking at Ukraine as a threat to Russian national security. Putin has control of the Arctic region in Siberia, laying claims to mineral wealth and strategic security arrangements.
Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede is well aware of the latest Patriot poll showing that over 57% of Greenland residents support U.S. control. Whatever attachment Denmark has with Greenland, they’ve made no effort to relocate the Danish population to Greenland or, for that matter, to provide a mutual defense treaty to protect the territory from a possible Russian invasion. Every resident of Greenland wants a brighter future with more industry and jobs coming the their Arctic island. Under Danish rule or affiliation, Greenland has gone nowhere other than maintaining their Inuit identity. If the new Patriot poll says anything, it shows that there are mixed reactions to Trump’s proposal to acquire the once Danish territory. Every Greenland citizen knows that if they value independence and freedom, the U.S. is the best place for Greenland to end up.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
