Why Would Trump Buy Greenland When He Can Rent It?

[Zorro]

A mutually beneficial deal that avoids antagonizing the local population can be struck with relative ease, as Xi’s playbook for Africa shows.

President-elect Donald Trump still wants to buy Greenland, having previously likened it to a giant real estate deal. If so, he seems to have forgotten one relevant precept: Why own when you can more profitably rent?

When the US bought its way into the Arctic by purchasing Alaska from Russia in 1867, it also contemplated making a bid for Greenland, which is geographically part of North America but constitutionally part of Denmark. The US also offered Denmark $100 million for Greenland after World War II. Instead, Washington got a defense treaty centered on Thule Air Base, now Pituffik Space Base, the US military’s most northerly installation on Earth and strategically critical since the early years of the Cold War.

Greenland, granted self-rule in 2009, remains of vital interest to the US. Roughly as large as Alaska and Texas combined, it sits astride strategic sea lanes like the Northwest Passage and the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap, as well as beneath Arctic flight paths (including those for missiles).

It is also a potential trove of resources. Greenland’s ice sheet, covering about four-fifths of the island, contains 7% of the world’s freshwater. Undeveloped oil and gas resources are estimated to be the third-largest in the Arctic. Most pertinently, of 50 minerals designated as “critical” by the US, as many as 37 may be found in moderate or high quantities in Greenland, based on a geological survey published in 2023. This includes world-class deposits of rare earth elements; vital for a variety of industrial, energy transition and military applications but whose production is currently dominated by China (as Beijing has recently reminded Washington with export controls).

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-01-07/why-would-trump-buy-greenland-when-he-can-rent-it?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTczNjI2NDkzMCwiZXhwIjoxNzM2ODY5NzMwLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTUFBRRzlUMEcxS1cwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDNjgyQTUwQzJCRDM0MTFCQTgwQjEwQjZEQjczQzM1MSJ9.np2a_evNLXY_cCxGaak9rtBsgTaR4rprB1auXqV_52o