As President Trump said, for more than 150 years, U.S. officials have been hoping to “get” Greenland.
The idea was raised in the 1860s and was then again before and after the World War. In a sense, the timing couldn’t be better, and the Greenlands revisited their painful colonial history under Denmark’s leadership, where many were eager to stand out from Denmark, which still controls certain affairs on the island.
But President Trump seems to have exaggerated his card – for a long time.
His decision to announce this weekend that the dispatch of a tall U.S. delegation to the island was apparently uninvited and has backfired. The government has tried to bring it up as a friendly trip, saying Vice President JD Vance’s wife Usha Vance will be attending a dog this week with one of her sons, while National Security Advisor Michael Waltz will visit U.S. military bases.
However, the move has not won the hearts of Greenland’s 56,000 people, coupled with Trump’s recent conversation about how he will “get it one way or another” push Greenland further.
In the past 24 hours, the Greenland government has abandoned its previous shyness and ambiguity in the face of Mr. Trump’s push. Instead, it blows him up for “aggressive” and asks for European backups. The planned visit can only strengthen the bond between Greenland (this is three times the ice-covered land in Texas and Denmark).
“This obviously has the opposite effect that Americans want,” said Lars Trier Mogensen, a political analyst in Copenhagen. “This offensiveness pushes Greenland away from the United States, even though all Greenland parties were looking forward to more business with Americans a year ago.”
His prediction? He said the Greenlanders would “seek security in the Kingdom of Denmark and their alliances.”
Even the dog’s race responded calmly. The contest organizer – Greenland’s Super Bowl Avannaata Qimusserua said on Sunday that Ms. Vance and her son “we did not invite them” but added that the event was open to the public and that “they can participate as spectators.”
Greenland drama began with Mr. Trump’s first term. He proposed the idea of buying islands from Denmark – the people in the camp pointing to their location and the importance of geopoliticality – but the plan faded away. Mr. Trump is not the first American official to come up with the idea.
In 1868, Secretary of State William Seward had just purchased a fresh purchase from Alaska, commissioned a study on the acquisition of Greenland. He was interested in Greenland’s coal, but the program didn’t have any place. U.S. officials resurrected the idea in 1910 and 1946, viewing Greenland as a strategically important territory, but Denmark did not want to separate it every time.
What has changed in recent years is Denmark’s grip. In 2009, Denmark granted Greenland self-rules, which means that the island operates most of the matters besides defense, foreign policy and some other matters. The complete independent movement has been collecting steam. This month, the parliamentary election, which was closely watched on the island, achieved awkward and mixed results: the first party hopes to pursue independence slowly, while the second-place finisher hopes it will be faster and includes prominent pro-Trump members attending the president’s inauguration.
This raises another question: the timing of the visit, while the Greenland Party is still negotiating who will form the island’s next government.
“This is a bad time. We don’t even have a new government yet. They should wait,” said Jens Peter Lange, a dental technician at Ilulissat in the Arctic Circle.
But he said, “Is this disrespectful? Not really. I would rather say: They lack situational awareness.”
This visit has been going on for weeks. Greenland-style bricklayer, Mr. Trump’s outspoken supporter Jørgen Boassen, said he and Tom Dans were American businessmen who provided advice to Mr. Trump during his first term on the Arctic affairs, which he helped organize.
“Instead of just rejecting them, we should work with Americans,” Mr. Boassen said in an interview. “We simply cannot avoid the United States as a partner, both in trade and defense.”
“I think they’re definitely great to come,” he added. “It’s a huge promotion for our Greenland sled dogs.”
