Why Does Trump Really Want Greenland?
His threat to annex the Danish territory has shaken NATO. Bloomberg Originals explores the US president’s justifications for expansion.
Pituffik Space Base and the domes of the Thule Tracking Station in northern Greenland.
Photographer: Thomas Traasdahl/AFP/Getty Images
It’s been a turbulent start to the year for US foreign policy. Donald Trump recently renewed his public musings about annexing or buying Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory controlled by Denmark. The president’s threats followed last month’s US attack on Caracas and the rendition of Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro, as well Pentagon strikes that have killed almost 150 civilians across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific who the US has alleged were drug couriers.
Trump has made plain his desire to further assert US dominance over the Western hemisphere. But in the case of Greenland, his saber-rattling is against a NATO ally. The Republican’s reasons for coveting the huge island have swung from military to mineral and back again. In this Bloomberg Originals weekly documentary, we unpack these public justifications for once-unthinkable American threats against an ally, and the potential consequences for NATO and the world.