This article was originally published by Connor O’Keeffe at The Mises Institute.
In recent weeks, President Trump has been getting more vocal about his intention to bring the semiautonomous Danish territory of Greenland under the control of the American federal government. A meeting was held last Wednesday between officials from the US, Greenland, and Denmark that, according to the Danish foreign minister, didn’t move the dispute any closer to a resolution. Since then, Trump has been repeatedly signaling that he’s willing to send American troops in to take it by force if the Danish government doesn’t agree to hand it over peacefully.
Those comments have caused a lot of confusion and angst among European governments, many of whom have sent small military contingents to Greenland, not really as a show of force as much as a signal of disapproval. In the US, these comments have kicked off a debate about the strategic benefits of Washington controlling Greenland, both in terms of its position in the Arctic Circle and its stockpile of so-called rare earth minerals.
But the fact that there is a debate over this at all is ridiculous.
Even from the perspective of those who want to maintain or even expand America’s global empire, bringing the territory of Greenland under Washington’s direct control is not strategically necessary. Along with the navy, it’s a system of overseas bases—not foreign territories—that allows the American government to exert so much military power around the globe. Greenland is part of this broader system. The US already has extensive military assets on the island—mainly at Pituffik Space Base. And, because the Kingdom of Denmark has been a friendly NATO ally, Washington already has the ability to expand its military presence if it deems that necessary.
Of course, as Copenhagen grows more frustrated with Trump’s comments about taking their territory, Trump may have unnecessarily put this setup at risk. But there is already a pretty sizable consensus among American national security scholars that the US is already achieving its strategic objectives in Greenland.
There’s also no genuine fear—even from the most hawkish foreign policy-focused think tanks in Washington—that there is a serious and imminent risk that Greenland will fall under Chinese or Russian control if the current setup continues.
All the strategic and geopolitical rationales Trump is citing are not actual reasons for acquiring Greenland; they’re excuses meant to justify a policy he wants for different reasons.
The same goes for Greenland’s rare earths. While the island does have deposits of rare earth minerals, it’s not an exceptionally resource-rich territory. First of all, a lot of advocates of a Greenland takeover like to lump in far more common minerals like copper to make the island’s deposits seem a lot bigger than they are. But even setting that aside, Greenland’s minerals are not easily accessible. Most of the land is covered by thick ice sheets year-round. Launching mining operations in Greenland would be very expensive. In the scheme of rare earth mining environments, it’s really nothing special.
As Mises pointed out in his book Omnipotent Government, the “raw materials” of a foreign territory are a common rationale that governments use to justify the naked expansionism they want to carry out anyway. That’s all that’s going on here. Trump wants Greenland to satisfy his growing obsession with expanding the territory of the United States.
This isn’t a new interest. Trump explored purchasing Greenland in his first term. But he’s gotten more direct about it in this second term—going as far as to say, outright, in his inaugural address that he wants to oversee territorial expansion. He hung a painting of President James K. Polk in his office and said it was because he admired how Polk doubled the size of the US through his war of conquest against Mexico. He’s also told reporters directly that he’s struck by how “massive” Greenland is on the world map and wants it to be part of the United States.
The president’s recent rhetorical escalation on this front seems to be the result of Trump first feeling emboldened by his successful operation to capture Venezuela’s President Maduro and, more recently, his frustration with the reportedly last-minute cancellation of the series of strikes he had planned to carry out on the Iranian regime. That’s why he’s currently making a lot of noise about Greenland—as can be seen in his bizarrely emotional letter about it to the Prime Minister of Norway.
But, zooming out, this is just about feeding Trump’s ego. He wants to cement his legacy. That’s the only real reason for all this. There’s not even a big group of special interests that stand to benefit, like there usually is when a policy happens to get a lot of traction. Mining companies might make some money, but again, Greenland is not an exceptionally lucrative prospect. Weapons companies would, of course, benefit from any buildup of military infrastructure, but once again, the US doesn’t need to own Greenland to do that.
There are also, bizarrely, some tech billionaires who apparently want to create some kind of libertarian “freedom city” on Greenland, similar to China’s “special economic zones”—with minimal regulations. But that doesn’t necessarily require US ownership either. And, really, it’d be a lot better if those same people invested all that time and money in the ongoing effort to bring about those free market conditions here in the United States, where it will actually benefit Americans directly.
Instead, if Trump goes through with this Greenland acquisition, we Americans will just be forced to bankroll another incredibly expensive government program that won’t make life any better for us. The estimated cost of purchasing the territory peacefully is $700 billion. All, at the end of the day, to make Trump feel important.
There should not even be a debate over this absurd policy. The benefits are fake for nearly everyone but Trump. But the costs would be real and considerable. And, it’s important to note, even if that cost-benefit calculation were different, the US government doesn’t have the right to do this. The people of Greenland don’t want to be ruled by the US or even by Denmark.
Trump’s ego clearly demands constant gratification. But we shouldn’t accept another massive spending increase—and violate the rights of yet another foreign population—just to satisfy it.
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