Donald Trump's plans to acquire Greenland

President Donald Trump has been speculating about ways the USA could acquire Greenland since 2018.^[1]

Trump is not the first US President to consider the possibility that the USA should acquire Greenland.^[2] President Harry Truman offered to buy Greenland, for $100 million, in 1946. The USA did buy Denmark's small colonies in the Caribbean -- now the US Virgin Islands. But he is the first President who did not drop the idea when it became apparent that neither Denmark or the people of Greenland were in favor of acquisition.

References

↑ Maggie Haberman; Michael D. Shear (2019-08-15). "Trump Is Said to Ask: Can We Buy Greenland?". The New York Times. p. A14. Archived from the original on 2019-08-16. Retrieved 2026-08-11. His interest in Greenland began last year. At a meeting that spring in the Oval Office, he joked about buying Greenland for its resources, according to a person who was in attendance. In the year since, the president has repeatedly returned to the topic, asking aides if they can pursue a purchase of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory that Mr. Trump has been taken with in part because of its natural resources, like coal and uranium.
↑ "Why Greenland Is So Important To The World Right Now". Geography by Geoff. 2025-01-28. Retrieved 2026-08-12 – via YouTube. Greenland has a vast ice sheet that's over 1 mile thick on average. And this means that there's something hidden under all that ice! Specifically, Greenland could be sitting on top up trillions of dollars worth of minerals, oil, and other scarce resources.

[nytimes-2019-08-15-1] Maggie Haberman; Michael D. Shear (2019-08-15). "Trump Is Said to Ask: Can We Buy Greenland?". The New York Times. p. A14. Archived from the original on 2019-08-16. Retrieved 2026-08-11. His interest in Greenland began last year. At a meeting that spring in the Oval Office, he joked about buying Greenland for its resources, according to a person who was in attendance. In the year since, the president has repeatedly returned to the topic, asking aides if they can pursue a purchase of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory that Mr. Trump has been taken with in part because of its natural resources, like coal and uranium.

[YouTube-GeographyByGeoff-2025-01-28-2] "Why Greenland Is So Important To The World Right Now". Geography by Geoff. 2025-01-28. Retrieved 2026-08-12 – via YouTube. Greenland has a vast ice sheet that's over 1 mile thick on average. And this means that there's something hidden under all that ice! Specifically, Greenland could be sitting on top up trillions of dollars worth of minerals, oil, and other scarce resources.

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