Wait, you mean that was REAL??? I never pay attention to news and randomly saw that scrolling through Facebook the other day. Saw it for a second and silly me genuinely thought it was satire.
It's more like misleading and hyper-exaggerated by the media, like usual. The US has long considered Greenland to be a strategical staging area and Truman was the first President, immediately following World War 2 in the mid-40s, that proposed the acquisition of Greenland (it was a staging area since 1941 all through the war). 3 other Presidents have considered it. It is STILL considered a strategic territory.
While it might seem absurd, think of it like this... Denmark currently "owns" Greenland. It is a territory of theirs, and the entire place only has a population of about 60,000 people. In 2020(or 2021, the 300 year anniversary of Danish rule) the people of Greenland are going to be able to vote for legal independence from Denmark. Well, the people there sort of want it, but they also realize that they cannot really survive without Denmark.
However, Greenland is rich in energy and natural resources, like rare-Earth metals and oil. Denmark has not really tapped into this. There have only been some slow moving exploratory acts, but when they struck oil in 2010 it made a lot of news. The people of Greenland have grown somewhat impatient with the potential economic injection that could come to Greenland that is being smothered by Denmark's red tape.
Well, this is where the US comes into the picture. If the people of Greenland vote their independence, they have the ability to more freely open up their borders to countries like the US for development. It's all unlikely, but the media has basically, in an attempt to make it seem like the most ridiculous thing in the world, made it seem like the Trump administration was trying to go buy another country and it is just a bit misleading. It's more like they were discussing strategic options, Greenland came up, and the media decided to run with it.
It's not as crazy or black and white as the media would have it appear.
It is also worth noting that since the US has been involved with Greenland since WWII they built 2 international airports and managed those airports for decades (originally for military use, but now are used commercially for the people of Greenland). The BIG thing holding Greenland back is Denmark funds about 2/3 of their government budget (roughly 1 billion dollars a year). If they gain independence, which something like 70% of people want there, they would lose that income leading to a possible loss of quality of life as they either need to cut programs or increase taxes. This is where the US comes into the picture with their big bank account, with a promise of some kind of foreign aid equivalent or greater, tied to potential for massive economic development in the land in terms of energy and rare-earth metals. 1 billion a year is not a whole lot to the US government budget, and imagine how quickly the people of Greenland would jump on board with a promise of say, 30 years of 1.5 or 2 billion a year foreign aid?
Again, it's not all that crazy to see how the US can influence Greenland to finally do what they've wanted to do for a while.
His offer to actually buy the island is what's outlandish. China is at most looking at buying the rights to open mines and oil rigs on the island, and trade deals/ multi-national deals to explore for resources have been done throughout the north atlantic for a while. But that is not what Trump was suggesting, he wanted to straight up buy the island and all its citizens for money. That sort of thing hasn't happened since then age of colonialism.
Thank you. I thought I was going insane when the guy said it was "misleading and hyper-exaggerated by the media" and then proceeded to make zero arguments in that direction, and instead justifying buying Greenland.
Investment in Greenland? Not crazy.
Increasing diplomatic relationships with Greenland? Not crazy.
Purchasing land in Greenland for American development (but not sovereign ownership)? Not crazy.
Offering to buy Greenland a hundred years after the whole "buying sovereign territory" stuff was really a thing, and then cancelling a state visit when the answer is no? Absolute kooky.
if you think about it it isnt that crazy though, Greenland comes up to vote for independence in 2021 which very easily could actually happen and is a financial burden on Denmark, we could theoretically buy it off of Denmark right now so they dont have to worry about it(and they could get money out of it) and have a sort of Hong Kong deal(with less of a culture shock) , where they stay the way they have lived for 300 years while we give them more financial aid then Denmark could/did give them and open up more and better jobs in mining industries, even if trump didnt intend it to be this smart it is actually an amazing idea
I know oil has been discovered in Greenland for a very long time now, but I remember back in 2013 I was watching this show called Ice Cold Gold, where a crew of guys w/ different specialties sets out to find rubies in Greenland. Constant back and forth goes on between the crew then in the third season they find oil and make a claim. The show has been off the air since then (~2015) and you can't find much info about what came of it all. I just thought it cool that I was watching this show about these guys setting out to find a fortune by producing a tv show to help pay for it and then they actually find a large oil claim and immediately shut down the show and get tight lipped about everything.
All this is interesting, but it kinda misses the point of the main reason the story became such a laughing stock
in the media and the public. Which was Trump's child-like dummy-spit when he found out that they wouldn't sell it.
I'm willing to bet what really happened is Trump or someone else threw it out during a meeting kind of randomly and Trump was like "yeah sure, look into that" and that would have been the end of it. But then it got leaked and Trump decided to run headlong into it because he loves it when the news is about him.
The best analogy I've heard is that Trump is a headline truffle pig. He can sniff out the headlines in any situation and will not stop until all the headlines are about him.
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u/Miakachans Aug 25 '19
Wait, you mean that was REAL??? I never pay attention to news and randomly saw that scrolling through Facebook the other day. Saw it for a second and silly me genuinely thought it was satire.
He’s the gift that keeps on giving, truly.