Not for sale, Greenland rejects Trump’s ‘colonial’ fantasy

Donald Trump’s plans to buy Greenland or take it by force are disconnected from the principles of humanity and motivated solely by profit, according to a local MP who has lambasted the president-elect.

Najaaraq Møller spoke to The i Paper after Trump said he did not rule out using military or economic coercion to take control of the world’s largest island.

Trump has said repeatedly that the United States should own or control the autonomous territory, which is part of Denmark.

The Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, said on Tuesday: “Greenland is not for sale and will not be in the future either.”

It follows the pledge of the territory’s Prime Minister Múte Egede, who said last month: “Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale.”

Greenland has its own parliament, the Inatsisartut, and MP Najaaraq Møller said Trump’s visions were “disconnected from the principles of humanity. It is neither ethical nor just to entertain the notion that a nation with its own people, culture, and history can be treated as a commodity.

“Such dreams, motivated solely by profit and the exploitation of resources, disregard the rights and wellbeing of the people who call this land home.”

She said the history of colonisation was one of ignoring the needs of indigenous peoples. “In this era, where powerful leaders often prioritise dominance and profit over humanity, the world faces significant challenges,” she said.

“It is therefore imperative that all parties engage in meaningful, respectful dialogue before making decisions of great consequence.”

Møller, who refers to Greenland by its Inuit name, Kalaallit Nunaat, is also seeking full independence from Denmark. “Kalaallit Nunaat belongs to the Kalaallit people. Our party works tirelessly toward independence – to be free from external control and to stand strong as a nation with our own identity,” she said.

Trump said last month that buying the Arctic island was an “absolute necessity” for the US, repeating a proposal he made in 2019 during his first term.

Greenland – 10 times bigger than Britain – has a population of 57,000. It was a Danish colony until it became self-ruling with its own parliament in 1979. It remains a territory of Denmark, with Copenhagen exercising control over its foreign and defence policy.

Greenland has extensive mineral and other natural resources, from oil to rare earth minerals, and thanks to its proximity to both Russia and the Arctic region, it is a strategic asset for the West.

There is a long history of American territory being bought, such as the island of Manhattan, President Thomas Jefferson’s 1803 Louisiana Purchase from France’s under Napoleon, and the Alaska Purchase from the Russian Empire.

The US first suggested buying Greenland in the 1860s, and in the 1940s President Harry Truman offered Denmark $100m in gold. While rejected, the US was allowed to install its military at Pituffik Space Base.

Analysts dismissed Trump’s comments, saying he has either misunderstood modern statehood, is grandstanding, or is bullying Denmark in hopes of securing concessions.

Taking Greenland by force would be against international law, says Dr Martin Bayly, a professor in international relations at LSE. “While technically, anything’s possible – and we’ve seen how land can be seized as it has been in Ukraine – taking Greenland today would require military force, and it would go against the basic principle of international law.”

Trump’s crude demands are a callback to an age of empires and colonies, Bayly said, adding that one of these legacies is the extensive range of US military bases around the world, from the Philippines to Bahrain.

“There are lots of territories around the world that remain under control of what were former imperial powers – including some British dependencies,” Bayly said. “So it’s not surprising that powerful states like the United States would seek to recover some of the territorial links. We’d like to think that empire is a thing of the past, but actually, it’s all around us in international politics.”

Scott R Anderson, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and Columbia Law School, said: “Trump has a very dated view about foreign territories – that they can be bought and sold and controlled.”

He suggested Trump is simply expressing his base impulses: “Trump repeatedly says things he wants, whether legally feasible or realistic or not, and just putting it out there.

“Sometimes people treat that like he’s playing four-dimensional chess and manipulating things. I think he’s just saying things he wants to happen and hopes people will find a way to make it happen. He makes these statements because they get a lot of attention, but it is no more realistic to buy Greenland than it is to make Canada the 51st state.”

The idea of buying a territory is also outdated, according to Emil Havstrup, a researcher at the Clingendael Institute in the Netherlands. “It is a hallmark of a bygone age, where territories were bought and sold,” he says, noting that there are precedents for Denmark: it sold three Virgin Islands to the US a little over a century ago. “But that was also very contentious, and the Danish Prime Minister has said is a very undemocratic way to go about it.”

Havstrup said Trump’s claims appeared to be a bargaining strategy. “It is a pressure tactic because he wants something else in return,” he says, possibly related to more rights for American troops stationed on Greenland.

“It is affectionately referred to as the ‘America’s burglar alarm’, because of all the early warning systems there. So do they want to re-evaluate the security arrangement, and is it related to natural resources in the region?”