Donald Trump has said that owning and controlling Greenland is an “absolute necessity” for the United States.
“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.
Trump made the comments in a post announcing PayPal co-founder Ken Howery as his choice for U.S. ambassador to Denmark. Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Donald Trump speaking in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday. Trump has said that the “ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity” for the United States. Donald Trump speaking in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday. Trump has said that the “ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity” for the United States. Rick Scuteri/AP
Why It Matters
Trump floated the idea of the U.S. purchasing Greenland in 2019 during his first term in office.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen dismissed the suggestion at the time as “absurd.”
Greenland is the world’s largest non-continental island and is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.
The Wall Street Journal reported in 2019 that Trump was considering trying to acquire Greenland because of its natural resources and to give him a “legacy akin to President Dwight Eisenhower’s admission of Alaska into the U.S. as a state.”
What to Know
The U.S. has previously made enquiries about buying Greenland. In 1867, a report from the State Department said that the island’s location and natural resources would make it an ideal acquisition.
President Harry Truman offered to purchase Greenland from Denmark in 1946 for $100 million in gold.
In the 1970s, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller also discussed buying Greenland for its mineral resources, reported The Washington Post.
Trump canceled a planned state visit to Denmark in 2019 after the country’s prime minister knocked back his suggestion that Greenland could be purchased.
It comes as Trump has also said that the U.S. could demand the return of the Panama Canal if the Central American country fails to reduce the fees it charges to American ships.
The Republican described Panama’s control of the key trading route as a “complete ‘rip-off'” for the U.S. on Truth Social.
Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino dismissed Trump’s suggestion. “Every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent zones is part of Panama, and it will continue to be,” Mulino said in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter.
The Panama Canal was handed from the U.S. to the Central American country in 1999 following a treaty signed in 1979.
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