President Trump's long-standing goal of claiming Greenland for America has shifted from rhetoric to official US policy as the White House advances its formal plan to acquire the Arctic Island from Denmark.
The plan mobilizes several cabinet departments behind Trump's long-standing story of Greenland.
The Greenland size – 836,330 square miles – also offers former Manhattan developer Trump, offering the opportunity to clinch what could be considered one of the biggest real estate transactions in history.
Danish officials are angry that the less populated islands are not sold and cannot be annexed. But Trump has made clear his determination to control it.
“We need Greenland for national and international security, and we are working with all involved to get it,” he said in a speech to Parliament last month.
“In any case, we're trying to get it,” Trump added.
The White House National Security Council has met several times to guide Trump's words into action, according to US officials, and recently sent specific instructions to multiple government weapons.
Details of the plan are unknown. But despite all the hints about Trump's use of force, the Security Council-led deliberations have never seriously considered military options, officials said.
Instead, the policy features public relations efforts aimed at convincing Greenland's 57,000 population, highlighting persuasion over coercion.
According to another person who has been described on the issue, Trump's advisors discussed using advertising and social media campaigns to shake public opinion about the island.
It could be a difficult battle. Last month's election, opposition parties that support rapid independence and close ties with the US finished second, but ended with a quarter of votes.
The US messaging campaign doesn't have any appeal to the Greenlanders' shared heritage with native Inuit people in Alaska, about 2,500 miles away.
Greenland's Inuit population is derived from people who migrated from Alaska hundreds of years ago, and the island's official language comes from the Inu dialect that originated in the Arctic of Canada.
Trump's advisers have already begun making public cases, claiming that Denmark is the poor manager of the island, and that only the US can protect it from invasions by Russia and China, and that America can help the Greenlanders “get rich.”
The Trump administration also reminds Greenland that the US has defended it before.
Last month, Trump posted a smooth 90-second video on social media celebrating the “blood and courage” of the US military, which gained position on the island during World War II, to prevent the terrifying Nazi invasion after Germany took over Denmark.
Denmark wanted the US troops to leave after the war, but they never did, and the US still maintains military bases there.
The Trump administration is also studying Greenlander's economic incentives, including the possibility of replacing the $600 million subsidies Denmark gives to the island with an annual payment of around $10,000 per Greenlander.
Some Trump officials believe these costs could be offset by new revenue from extracting Greenland's natural resources, including rare earth minerals, copper, gold, uranium and oil.
Trump officials argue that the American capital and industry may have access to the wealth of undeveloped minerals in ways that Denmark cannot. “It's about important minerals,” Trump's national security adviser Michael Waltz told Fox News in January. “This is about natural resources.”
However, analysts do not universally agree that it is easy to benefit from mining in areas where the island still exists. And it may be hard to explain the heavily spent on American voters as Trump cuts Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest man, for $1 trillion, and appointed Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest man.
Trump's interest in Greenland is nothing new. He was serious enough in his first term to tell national security officials he would explore ideas. However, after he began to discuss it publicly, Greenland officials balked, and Trump did not pursue the idea that was treated as a wild fantasy.
Since his second election last fall, Trump has enthusiastically updated his desires. “Let's do that,” he demanded an aide.
“President Trump believes Greenland is a strategically important place and believes that the Greenlanders will be protected by the US from modern Arctic threats,” said Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
Hughes said that Waltz and Vice President J.D. Vance had recently visited Greenland and “laying out key cases for a partnership between Greenland and the United States, establishing long-term peace within the country and sharing prosperity.”
Some analysts say the idea of bringing Greenland into the US, or at least building a much closer relationship with the island, is less ridiculous than it sounds.
It is primarily due to climate change, which is to thaw resource-rich areas and make them more commercially viable. Warm temperatures also opened new sea routes through the Arctic for commercial transport as well as Chinese and Russian military vessels.
But Trump vows to control the sound in many of the worlds like raw imperialism, along with his story of stealing the Panama Canal and even annexing Canada. If the administration's efforts to persuade fail, it appears there is a good chance that Trump will escalate his tactics.
Several US presidents are considering trying to acquire Greenland. The Truman administration was plagued by Nazi threats to the island during World War II, providing Denmark with $1 billion worth of its $1 billion in 1946.
Denmark exercised control of various forms of Greenland over the centuries and accepted it in 1953 as part of the kingdom. Today, Greenland manages its domestic issues with up to 60% subsidies by Denmark. Many Greenland leaders support independence, but how quickly it should happen and whether it will approach the US will differ.
Danish leaders are shocked and furious by Trump's story of buying or seizing the island, claiming that Greenlander must decide his fate freely. During a visit to Greenland last week, Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredericksen denounced the “pressure and threat” of the Trump administration, saying “we cannot annex other countries.”
Amidst the intense Danish resistance, the Trump administration has turned its eye to the direct courtship of the Greenlanders.
Speaking to Greenlanders during his speech to Congress, Trump said, “We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we will welcome you into the United States.”
“We'll keep you safe,” he said. “We'll make you rich.”
Vance wrote a similar note on March 28th while visiting the US military base on the island.
Vance spoke there to reporters and predicted that the Greenlanders would “choose to become independent from Denmark through self-determination and then to have conversations with the people of Greenland.”
Trump and his senior officials have yet to disclose the relationship between Greenland's Inuit population and Alaska's American Inuit population, as envisaged in the plan approved by the National Security Council.
However, the dynamics were noted in December by Robert O'Brien, who served as one of Trump's first national security advisers.
“You can buy Greenland from there and Greenland can become a part of Alaska, meaning that Greenland is very closely associated with the people of Alaska,” Denmark said in an interview with Fox News.
It is unclear how powerful the message will resonate on the island. Alaskans share the state's oil wealth benefits in the form of annual checks to residents, but the Inuit people endure unbalanced poverty and health conditions.
Danish leaders argue that the US pressure campaign has already damaged America's post-World War II alliance with Denmark.
“We've been respectful of you,” Fredericksen said of the United States when he visited Greenland this month. “You inspired us. You have been protected by a free world.”
“But,” she added. “When we demand that we take over a portion of our kingdom territory — when we are under pressure and threat, what do we think of the country we have admired for many years?”
