President Donald Trump has repeatedly laid out why he’s so obsessed with buying or even annexing Greenland from the Kingdom of Denmark: he wants to fully secure U.S. military bases there — something NATO already allows — he wants access to the island’s mineral resources, and he is fixated on the idea Russia or China could take over the island.
But even if, somehow, Denmark had a change of heart and made a deal, or if Trump broke apart the NATO alliance to seize Greenland by force, there’s something he hasn’t considered, the Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote: how expensive it would be to have Greenland as a U.S. holding.
“The world’s largest island is prized by the U.S. president as the real-estate purchase of a lifetime. It boasts a strategic location and untapped mineral reserves buried deep beneath the ice,” wrote the board. “Right now, however, the economy is reliant on something more prosaic: fishing and a recent surge in investment to build new airports. And revenue from both of these is trending down, causing the economy to flatline in 2025.”
In fact, the board noted, polls show Greenlanders are more worried about the state of their economy than the risk Trump could conquer them, something they have made clear they don’t want. And Greenlandic politicians have acknowledged whoever is in charge is “more likely to find themselves staring down a money pit rather than a gold mine.”
“The island is one of one of the world’s biggest welfare states, a vast expanse of ice-clad villages whose residents — reachable only by helicopter and propjet — are nonetheless accustomed to the perks of Denmark’s social democracy, from free healthcare to robust schools,” wrote the board. “It could also take years and billions of dollars to transform an economy where 98% of the exports are seafood into a mining behemoth.”
All of this comes as the rest of the NATO alliance is bracing itself for the possibility that Trump will do something drastic and cause a huge rift, with Denmark increasing its military presence on the island.
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