Jose Huerta

​​In the ever-accelerating game of geopolitics, the United States’ new leadership is championing us toward major decisions that will redraw the maps in search of a new American Golden Age. The next region of the earth to be liberated by American exceptionalism? Greenland. While some people have written off President Donald Trump’s determination to purchase Greenland as little more than a well-timed meme, there’s a very serious rationale behind it. Here’s a breakdown of why we really should, in fact, add Greenland to the list of American territories:

First, a bit of background. Greenland is an enormous island, about seven times the size of New Mexico, located northeast of Canada, between the Arctic Ocean and Iceland. It is the northernmost point of land on earth, coming closer to the north pole than any other territory. Although huge in size, the only inhabitable portions are along the south and western coasts; the entire interior is permanently glaciated. Because of this, it has very few residents, with a population just half that of Rio Rancho. The island was discovered in 999 by Viking explorers and has remained under Denmark’s control until the modern day. They currently produce nothing useful and are completely dependent on Danish subsidies.  

Perhaps that doesn’t sound like a glowing investment opportunity: a frozen wasteland whose citizens cannot support themselves. But Greenland hides a trillion-dollar secret. Beneath the ice, there is an incomprehensible wealth of natural resources. The island has recently been shown to have some of the highest-grade gold ore in the world, huge deposits of rare earth elements (REEs) critical for all kinds of modern hardware, and critical deposits of uranium, zinc, copper, aluminum, nickel, titanium, graphite, and thorium. Additionally, Greenland boasts large quantities of expected hydrocarbons, with an incredible 31 billion barrels of oil already speculated to exist. To put that into perspective, the entire United States has about 35 billion barrels in proven reserves. Greenland would quite nearly double our known oil resources, guaranteeing us energy independence for generations.

The United States uniquely possesses the technology and ingenuity necessary to exploit this impressive portfolio of natural resources under the Arctic’s challenging conditions and to extract them in a way that is ecologically sound. With American leadership, Greenland will know a prosperity and a future such that it could never have previously hoped for. Of course, the United States is not an imperial power, nor do we want to be. Our country’s very existence is antithetical to imperialism. Neither Trump nor anyone in their right mind suggests that we conquer Greenland by force. That would be a fantasy. However, we must ensure that Greenland is developed responsibly for its role in the future. Greenland has historically had a strong desire for self-determination. If this can be meaningfully implemented, it may provide a more palatable solution; until then, we must work with the political realities that are available to us.

Beyond natural resources, which alone would be an undignified motivation for taking Greenland into the fold, there is a more pressing reason. Greenland sits at a strategic bottleneck and is the key to future American and European prosperity. The time has come for its potential to be realized. Why now? The truth is that the Arctic situation is radically changing. The Northwest Passage, for hundreds of years little more than an arcane sailor’s legend, is now proving a critical reality. Many underestimate the speedy pace of Arctic development. Warming temperatures are transforming the region into a key new area for international trade, natural resource exploration, and military strategy. Arctic shipping lanes, which will be usable in the very near future, are emerging as commercially viable shipping routes, drastically slashing transit times between major North American and Eurasian markets. Protecting Greenland will place us at the forefront of this new frontier and ensure that we can shape the Arctic’s future to reflect American values and serve American interests. Without Greenland, we will be deprived of the key to this door of opportunity, and be left playing catch-up in a race that will define the geopolitical landscape of the next century.

Our adversaries are aware of the Arctic reality and have already begun to move against us in the region. In recent years the Russians have been actively developing their portion of the Arctic, investing in a large fleet of icebreakers and building up their so-called “Northern Sea Route” as a key maritime corridor. Likewise, the Chinese have integrated Russia’s Northern Sea Route into their Belt and Road initiative, a decades-long communist plot to control all Asian trade. To this end they call it the “Ice Silk Road” and have recently begun issuing sea ice forecasts for the Russian coast, facilitating easy navigation for shipping in the area. This new axis of Russian and Chinese cooperation in the far north is reshaping the Arctic landscape in real time, bending a once-neutral region against us.

It is clear that the stakes are too high for inaction. Failure to secure Greenland would be a massive failure for all of the North Atlantic’s security. Despite our nearly 75-year-long subsidization of Denmark’s security, the ineffective Danish administration of the island has done nothing but embolden our rivals, Russia and China, and left us kneecapped in a competition that we cannot afford to lose. The United States already de-facto assures Greenland’s safety with the presence of Thule Space Base in the northwest of the country. If the Danes cannot more meaningfully contribute to the shared vision of the NATO alliance, they cannot continue to have sole possession of such a strategic landmass that they have failed to develop for over a thousand years. The truth is that Denmark will have a much greater share in regional prosperity and safety if Greenland’s protection is handled by the United States.

In short, the acquisition of Greenland isn’t an option. It’s imperative for the sure future of the free world and President Trump’s advisors are wise to pursue it. It’s imperative to safeguard our national security, fortify our economy, and assert our continued leadership in one of the most unexpectedly consequential regions of the 21st century. In recent decades, and most especially under the devastating destabilization of the Biden regime, we must admit that we have lost our sense of direction in the world. Now comes the time to show the world again that, as Americans, we never shy away from boldness when the moment calls for it. Let this be one of those moments, and let’s support President Trump in his quest to lead us to a new American Golden Age. For our future, and the future of the global community, we must act now.