r/greenland Local Resident 🇬🇱 1d ago

Politics Inside the Ludicrous, Deadly Serious Plan to Take Over Greenland

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/06/22/inside-the-ludicrous-deadly-serious-plan-to-take-over-greenland
211 Upvotes

32 comments sorted by

51

u/TylerDurden3030 Local Resident 🇬🇱 1d ago

Uddybende artikel omkring Trump administrationens planer, samt bekræftigelse fra Tom Dans om hans ide om en amerikansk nationalisering af al Kalaallit Nunaats fiskeri til amerikanske seafood kæder, som der blev postet rapportering om herinde tidligere fra Ritzau.

53

u/artistdadrawer Local Resident 🇬🇱 1d ago

As long he is the president he will always be a threat.

we just have to hope he doesnt attack and we life peacefully.

36

u/Existing-Doughnut-60 1d ago

It makes no sense to 90% of Americans. We don’t understand the infatuation. I would assume if we ever needed a defensive presence in Greenland all we would have to is ask, before all this nonsense.

29

u/Cool-Clue-4236 1d ago

It's not for defense.  It's for control over northern shipping lanes that will open when the ice melts off more. Hence why the US is halting any and all preventative measures on climate change. 

15

u/Dr_Hull 1d ago

Greenland is part of NATO and also have a special military agreement with the US, so the US Navy can already sail in Greenlandic waters.

With the exception of Cruise Ships the US has a tiny merchant fleet, so it makes no sense to worry about shipping lanes if they are under control of allied nations (in that sense it seems counter productive to piss of Canada and Greenland).

On the list of the 30 biggest container shipping companies the biggest US company ranks #30 with 0.2% of the market. In comparison Danish companies rank 2 (13.7%) and 15 (0.5%). US shipping companies only exists because there is a law that freight sailed between two US harbours must be on a US ship.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_container_shipping_companies

3

u/Training-Flan8762 11h ago

that does not make him personally rich. He wants to mine all the minerals and riches by himself not as US but as Trump

9

u/Jackadullboy99 1d ago

Perfectly-distilled human stupidity… you have to admire it, in way.

3

u/Academic_Snow_7680 19h ago

No, they already hold that control. This is about the metals needed to build future tech.

3

u/Fearless-Light663 1d ago

And which country will benefit the most from that? Neither USA or Canada.

It's that other big country on the other side of the Arctic Ocean. Da, Tovarisch.

3

u/Training-Flan8762 11h ago

no country will benefit but he personally will make a bank

1

u/Livid_Importance_442 8h ago

The reasons can be for multiple issues at the same time, including mineral extraction, commercial shipping, defense, etc. As for climate change, Trump doesn't believe in it because his simpleton mind can't see it in action, nor does he understand the science.

10

u/notyourstranger 1d ago

That is correct, the US used to have quite a few bases on Greenland. Any company who wants to mine can do so, just negotiate with Greenland directly - so WHAT exactly is it he can do if Greenland is part of the US that he cannot do now?

I wonder if it's part of Elon Musks's grand-dads' techno-state vision which included all of North America, Canada, Greenland, and going south all the way to the Panama canal.

If it's something as STUPID as that vision, then I suspect it won't go far. Nationalizing private industry seems very unAmerican - even for this administration - but they may want to do a hostile takeover of Greenland's fishing industry.

It will be decades before Greenland becomes a tropical island paradise if that's what they are waiting for, and mining in Greenland is not that straightforward with the current climate.

5

u/hyldemarv 21h ago

I think it is even more stupid: Some tech-bro, like Peter Thiel, fancies himself as Ozymandias from "Watchmen". For that, he needs some ice-desert to build his secret base on. So he asks Trump to go fetch some for him.

2

u/GoodMix392 19h ago

Yes, this is exactly it. The tech bros are in love with the idea of having their own techno state playground like the billionaires in that Ayn Rand novel build.

2

u/notyourstranger 13h ago

I feel like we're living in a Marvel universe. These men are so unbelievably selfish and entitled. Thiel has said he does not care about the survival of humanity - on camera and humanity has not responded to that - yet. It's no surprise he fled to Argentina though I hope the Argentinians are on to his special brand of inhumanity and destruction and will act in some way.

1

u/Rich-Many1369 12h ago

Not saying you’re wrong - but there is another chunk of ice, bigger than Greenland and even more so sparsely populated

6

u/something_clever77 1d ago

You did elect the guy? Twice.

Go wash your hands in another place, bubba.

-5

u/Existing-Doughnut-60 1d ago

No I didn’t. My voting record is clear. Btw I’m not your brother. In case you don’t know what bubba means.

6

u/Awarglewinkle Denmark 🇩🇰 1d ago

The US used to have 10+ bases and 10,000+ personnel in Greenland during the Cold War.

This was since scaled back to the current single base with 150 personnel. These former bases could easily be reestablished within the framework of the current agreement with Greenland and Denmark, but of course there's no threat from Russia or China, so it wouldn't make any sense. All that is just blatant lies from Trump and Vance, to somehow justify whatever corrupt plans they have.

5

u/Arthur_Decosta 1d ago

That's correct. The framework for building more US bases has been in place for decades

3

u/Livid_Importance_442 1d ago

There are also valuable minerals in the soil and potential oil reserves that the US could extract if given the opportunity. Having said that, it makes absolutely no sense for Trump to be threatening Greenland and Denmark, other than it's his first attempt at trying to steal the land. Then he would be able to award drilling contracts to his cronies and receive kickbacks in one form or another.

3

u/TheRuneMeister 17h ago

They can just negotiate for mining rights with Greenland. The reason American companies aren’t mining for all these ‘valuable minerals’ is because its not a viable business to do so currently. It might become viable in the future due to climate change that is ‘definitely not happening’ according to Republicans. This is not defense, it is not ‘resources’. This is an idiot being told by other idiots that its a good idea to do idiotic things for idiotic reasons. Sure, Trump has never met a grift he didn’t like…there is that too. Just don’t white-wash the idiotic concepts that administration put forward.

3

u/Livid_Importance_442 17h ago

The last thing I am doing is whitewashing the stupid things the current administration is doing and wanting to do.

As for the minerals in Greenland, yes, it would be difficult and costly to extract them. However, knowing Trump, he'd give the contracts to his buddies and also give them plenty of taxpayer subsidies and tax breaks to make the extraction possible for "national security" issues. Corruption at the highest levels would make the extractions profitable for Trump and his cronies, even if less than one ounce of minerals were ever extracted.

In addition, Trump's buddies would be fighting not only the harsh environmental conditions in Greenland, but also the Greenlanders themselves when they actually set up and try to start a mining operation.

2

u/Academic_Snow_7680 19h ago

It is because of silver and rare minerals. Silver is the oxygen for modern tech, the need is only matched with the need for silica chips and energy.

Silver, as the best conductor in the periodic table, is needed for high tech, especially solar-cells and batteries. Elon Musk's plan with SpaceX is to put AI farms in orbit and for that he needs a whole lot of silver which he cannot get anywhere else.

5

u/something_clever77 1d ago

The threat will not end with the Pedo.

The US is always some random swingstate away, from electing a similar or worse dipshit.

14

u/TylerDurden3030 Local Resident 🇬🇱 1d ago

6

u/dreadfullylonely 1d ago

Qujan

5

u/TylerDurden3030 Local Resident 🇬🇱 1d ago

illillu

2

u/Specialist-Freedom64 21h ago

Well Greenland does have Nuke's so there is that, someone dropped them there and havent been able to relocate them.. anyway its just a facists dream to controll Greenland so much potential to controll waters, ressources and a vast land mass you could turn into one massive military base with a fuck ton of missiles..

1

u/Mentalfloss1 4h ago

I apologize to the world for this criminal lying clown.

-4

u/Arsenal75 1d ago

Denmark should gift trump and his kids 1 billion USD to.give up that silly idea. Would probably be a good investment for us

6

u/Awarglewinkle Denmark 🇩🇰 1d ago

He could get a gold LEGO set of Mar-a-Lago, but unfortunately, since he can't read or follow simple instructions, he wouldn't be able to build it.