Greenland to be largest US land acquisition, if Trump has his way

In the 19th century, the young United States (US) grew in leaps and bounds.

 

First there was the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, in which Thomas Jefferson bought from the French a chunk of what is now America’s Midwest, West and South. Next was the Mexican Cession, in 1848. As part of a peace deal after the Mexican-American war, Mexico handed over territory including what is now California, Nevada and other states.

 

And then there was the Alaska Purchase, from the Russians, in 1867, which at the time was derided as an icebox and expensive.

 

But if US President Donald Trump gets his way and, as he has insisted, takes over Greenland “whether they like it or not,” it would be bigger than any of those, according to the National Archives, the US Census and the CIA World Factbook. At 836,000 square miles, Greenland is bigger than France, Britain, Spain, Italy and Germany — combined. It would be the largest territory the US ever added.

 

 

Trump has based his fixation on Greenland, which has been part of the Danish Kingdom for over 300 years, on reasons of “national security,” citing threats from Russia and China. But he has also made a past remark about Greenland’s size, and scholars say the territorial grandeur itself is a part of what appeals to him.

 

“Trump’s a real estate guy,” David Silbey, a historian at Cornell University, said, “and the idea of grabbing that much land seems to me his particular guiding force. The most most land ever.” He added that Trump “likes to pick on targets that are too weak to fight back, which certainly describes Denmark.”

 

This week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is meeting to discuss the future of Greenland with Danish and Greenlandic officials, both of whom say that the island, the world’s largest, is not for sale.

 

Trump has dismissed the importance of a longstanding American-Danish defence pact that already guarantees the US military access in Greenland. During World War II and the Cold War, the US had over a dozen bases on the island; now it has just one.

 

Daniel Immerwahr, a historian at Northwestern University, said Trump seemed more interested than any other recent president in expanding American borders. He cited Trump’s insistence on taking back the Panama Canal, his repeated comments that Canada could become America’s 51st state, his talk last year of taking over Gaza and his fixation on Greenland.

 

Greenlanders find the whole idea insulting. Even if the US were to offer each of Greenland’s 57,000 residents a million dollars, Greenlanders wouldn’t take it, said Aqqaluk Lynge, a former member of Greenland’s Parliament. “We don’t sell our souls,” he said.