Donald Trump suggested Thursday that the fate of the world rested on the United States gaining control of Greenland.
During a press conference with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Trump made a dramatic claim as he dismissed a question about securing NATO backing in his outlandish bid for control of the world’s largest island.
“Greenland’s gonna be interesting but that’s for another day,” Trump said. “I think we need that for international peace, and if we don’t have that it’s a big threat to our world. So, I think that Greenland is very important for international peace.”
Trump has been outspoken about his pipe dream to acquire the Danish-controlled territory for its value as a geopolitical asset and mineral and oil resources. Crucially, Greenland is strategically significant to the U.S because it sits between Russia and the eastern coast of the United States, and is the fastest way from Europe to New York.
Greenland is also located beside the Norwegian Sea, which connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Arctic Ocean and the Barents Sea, where the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet operates.
In March, Trump told NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that he could be very “instrumental” in helping the U.S. acquire the semi-autonomous territory from Denmark, which the U.S. desperately needed for “international security, not just security.”
Rutte responded saying he wouldn’t drag NATO into the issue, but that the island did have critical proximity to Chinese and Russian routes.
For now, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump appear as allies, as the president attempts to conduct Ukraine peace negotiations that will result in a fruitful deal for the U.S. and Moscow. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned during his visit in February that although there was a “nice ocean” between them, the U.S. might “feel” Russia’s war in the future.
Meanwhile, tensions with China have only continued to rise as Trump struggles to deescalate his foolish trade war, which has seen tariffs on Chinese imports to the U.S. rise to 145 percent.
As preposterous as Trump’s dreams of acquiring the island are, the Trump administration has already set to work to make it a reality, holding multiple meetings of the White House National Security Council about the proposal and launching a massive public relations campaign intent on somehow convincing Greenlanders to annex themselves. In Greenland and Denmark, the reception to such efforts has been about as frosty as the icy tundra.
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