Why does Trump want the US to take over Greenland? (Uncut) 03-17-2025

Why does Trump want the US to take over Greenland? This is the real reason

U.S. President Donald Trump wants to take over Greenland and forcibly incorporate it into the United States. Trump has repeatedly threatened to use military force to annex Greenland despite the fact that the vast majority of people in Greenland do not want to become part of the United States. A poll published by a Greenlandic newspaper in January found that 85 percent of Greenlanders do not want to join the United States.

Only six percent of people in Greenland actually support Trump’s proposal to take over the territory. And yet despite this, the U.S. President has repeatedly threatened Greenland and in a meeting with the leader of NATO in the White House in March, Trump even threatened to send more U.S. troops to take over Greenland. We really need Greenland for national security.

It’s very important. You know, we have a couple of bases on Greenland already and we have quite a few soldiers and maybe you’ll see more and more soldiers go there. Now, later I’ll talk more about why the U.S. government is trying to take over Greenland, the geopolitics of Greenland, and how the Trump administration is trying to prevent China from getting access to the region.

So here’s the thing that I think a lot of folks don’t appreciate about Greenland. It’s really important to our national security. There are sea lanes there that the Chinese use, that the Russians use.

When it comes to the high north and the Arctic, you are totally right. The Chinese are not using these routes. We know that the Russians are the army.

We have a lot of our favorite players cruising around the coast and we have to be careful. And how with climate change melting the Arctic, the Trump administration wants the U.S. to militarize the Arctic and prepare for potential war with China in the future. And also I’ll talk about how Trump and his vice president J.D. Vance have said openly that they want to exploit the potential billions or even trillions of dollars worth of critical minerals located in Greenland.

Greenland is really important for America strategically. It has a lot of great natural resources. They’ve got great natural resources there.

They’ve got an incredibly bountiful country. They want to take that mineral wealth away from the people of Greenland and they want that wealth to go to benefit the United States and in particular U.S. corporations and big corporate executives who funded Donald Trump’s political campaign. I’ll talk more about the geopolitics of Greenland in a few minutes here.

But first I want to talk about the people of Greenland because they’re being completely ignored by the U.S. empire which is just treating this territory as if there were no people living there and ignoring the vast majority of people who do not want to be part of the United States. Now technically Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark. It was colonized by the Danish empire.

However polls have repeatedly shown over years that the majority of people in Greenland oppose Danish colonialism and they want independence. However they don’t want to be part of the United States and they also don’t want to be part of Denmark. They want to be an independent country.

Greenland has a democratically elected parliament and a prime minister and he said very clearly in January quote we don’t want to be Danes. We don’t want to be Americans. We want to be Greenlanders end quote.

And by the way I should point out that it makes sense that the majority of the people in Greenland don’t want to join the United States. First of all the majority of Greenlanders are of indigenous Inuit descent and they have seen how the United States has treated Native Americans horribly and they don’t want to be treated the same way. But furthermore in Greenland they have a very progressive social democratic government where everyone is provided free universal health care and education.

So if they join the U.S. they would lose their education and health care and then of course the U.S. would colonize their territory and extract their billions or trillions of dollars of natural resources of critical minerals and the people of Greenland will not see the benefits of that. Instead U.S. corporations will profit from it. So obviously yes they don’t want to join the United States and they’re speaking out against Trump.

And there have been mass protests going on regularly in Greenland against Donald Trump’s threats. In March there was another big protest that was held and in the indigenous Greenlandic language spoken there by the Inuit population they refer to Greenland as Kalalit Nunat. And the elected prime minister Mute Iged he said in a Facebook post Kalalit Nunat is ours.

And they have their own national flag which the prime minister repeatedly posts in his official statements and their flag is different from the Danish flag. And the language that he uses the prime minister is he says we are a country even though we’re technically considered an autonomous territory of Denmark we consider ourselves a country and soon we are going to have independence formal independence from both Denmark and the U.S. We don’t want to be a colony. In another Facebook post in March Greenland’s prime minister Mute Iged said quote Kalalit Nunat will never be the USA because we are never going to join the United States and become Americans.

Greenland is one country we all stand behind and the parties stand united against the unacceptable behavior of the American leader and we continue to fight for our country end quote. Now Greenland’s current prime minister is from a left-wing party that describes itself as socialist but there are five different political parties in Greenland’s parliament of different political persuasions and yet what unites them is they all oppose U.S. imperialism and also Danish colonialism. They want independence they have disagreements and other political issues but no one basically wants the U.S. to colonize them.

Again a poll found that only six percent of the population supports Trump’s proposal of annexation and in March all five political parties in Greenland’s parliament published a joint statement saying quote we all party chairmen cannot accept the repeated statements on annexation and control of Greenland. We as party chairmen find this conduct unacceptable end quote. Now Donald Trump knows that the vast majority of people in Greenland oppose his attempt to take it over yet he’s ignoring the people of Greenland.

He’s acting like a 19th century colonialist like the French empire or the British empire that went around colonizing the world and in a speech that Trump delivered to the U.S. congress in March he threatened Greenland again and he implied military force saying one way or the other we’re going to get control over Greenland. And I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland. We strongly support your right to determine your own future and if you choose we welcome you into the United States of America.

We need Greenland for national security and even international security and we’re working with everybody involved to try and get it but we need it really for international world security and I think we’re going to get it one way or the other we’re going to get it. What’s especially revolting about that clip is you can hear multiple members of the U.S. congress laughing as the U.S. president vows to colonize a foreign territory where the majority of people do not want to be taken over by the U.S. and Trump has made it clear repeatedly that he wants to expand the territory of the U.S. empire. He has threatened to take over the Panama canal he’s threatened to colonize Gaza and expel Palestinians he’s even threatened to take over Canada and Mexico and who knows what other territories and in his inauguration speech Trump invoked the colonialist idea of manifest destiny and pledged to expand U.S. territory.

And above all China is operating the Panama canal and we didn’t give it to China we gave it to Panama and we’re taking it back. The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation one that increases our wealth expands our territory builds our cities raises our expectations and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons and we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars. That was not just a one-time comment.

Trump made very similar remarks in a speech in Las Vegas in January in which he vowed to substantially enlarge U.S. territory. The United States has the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth and we may be a very substantially enlarged country in the not too distant. Isn’t it nice to see you know for years for decades we’re the same size to the square foot probably got smaller actually but we might be an enlarged country pretty soon and one of the things we’re going to be doing is drill baby drill.

What this shows is that Donald Trump is bringing back the colonialist politics of the 19th century. That’s why in his inauguration speech he invoked manifest destiny. It’s why people around him his political allies and appointees have been invoking the Monroe Doctrine which is a 202 year old colonial doctrine and essentially what the Trump administration is saying is that the western hemisphere all of it is part of the U.S. empire’s imperial sphere of influence that Canada, Latin America and even Greenland are part of the U.S. sphere of influence and the U.S. empire should be able to control all of this territory and exploit its natural resources.

And in particular one of the things that the Trump administration is focused on is trying to prevent China from getting access to the arctic region and if you look at a map of the arctic circle you can see why Trump refers to Greenland as a so-called national security threat. Now the United States already has a big military base which was previously an air base now it’s a space base which is called Petufuk and it’s in the northwestern part of Greenland and this map that I’m looking at here shows the northwest passage and how ships could go through the arctic region passing by Greenland passing north of Canada going past Alaska and through the Bering Strait. By the way I just want to make a quick note for people who may be confused by the maps that show Greenland if you look at most maps in the west they use something known as the Mercator projection which makes the west look much bigger than it actually is and it makes Greenland look much bigger than it actually is.

Of course the earth is a sphere but the problem is that when you’re trying to portray the earth on a flat plane it ends up distorting the size of certain countries especially the countries around the arctic so if you adjust for the distortions made through the Mercator projection you can see that the United States, Canada, Greenland, also Russia are actually significantly smaller than they look like on the map that are that is typically used in the west. This is why when we’re analyzing the geopolitics of Greenland it’s better to look at a map specifically of the arctic circle and you can actually see the proportional size of Greenland. I’m not saying that it’s not big it is pretty big but compared to the Mercator projection you can see that it’s not this enormous land mass that people think that makes it look like it’s you know as big as Canada.

But regardless in terms of the geopolitics the point is that when you look at where Greenland is located in the arctic and in particular with Russia on the other side of the arctic it becomes clear what the U.S. empire’s designs are for this region and why Trump claims it’s a so-called national security threat. Well at least that’s the excuse he’s using of course. And as climate change gets worse and worse especially with the kinds of drill baby drill policies promoted by Donald Trump, what is happening is that temperatures are rising and some of the ice in this region is melting which makes it easier for ships to go through and that trend is likely going to continue into the future.

So Trump wants to militarize further militarize because again there’s already U.S. military base he wants to further militarize Greenland and prevent China from accessing the region and Russia. But the U.S. is not that concerned about Russia. In fact the Trump administration wants to try to ally with Russia against China.

You never want Russia and China uniting. We united them. It’s a shame the stupidity of what they’ve done.

I’m gonna have to ununite them and I can think I can do that too. I have to ununite them. If you listen to all of the statements from top U.S. officials they constantly say that the real so-called threat in scare quotes is China.

The intelligence community I think at this point leaders on both sides of the aisle have been pretty clear that this is the single greatest challenge this nation has ever faced. We have never faced a near-peer adversary with the pros of such a comprehensive challenge with China as today. Soviet Union was a military and geopolitical rival.

They were never an industrial technical or commercial rival. China is all of that and more. I mean that’s absurd because China has not fought a war since 1979 whereas the U.S. is constantly at war every single year.

But they’re trying to fabricate this myth of a so-called Chinese threat to scare people to justify a military buildup and to justify these very aggressive U.S. imperialist policies of trying to colonize other regions of the world. Trump hinted at this in the meeting that he held in the White House in March with the Secretary General of NATO Mark Rutte. Trump said quote we have a lot of our favorite players you know cruising around the coast and we have to be careful end quote.

And when he says favorite players he’s referring to China. Listen here. Greenland.

What is your vision for the potential annexation of Greenland and getting them potentially. Well I think it’ll happen and I’m sitting with a man that could be very instrumental. You know Mark we need that for international security not just security international.

We have a lot of our favorite players cruising around the coast and we have to be careful. After that the leader of NATO made very similar comments and he fear-mongered about China and also Russia operating in the Arctic and why the U.S. and NATO want to prevent China from getting access to the Arctic. So when it comes to Greenland yes or not joining the U.S. I would leave that outside for me this discussion because I don’t want to direct NATO in that.

But when it comes to the high north and the Arctic you are totally right. The Chinese are now using these rules. We know that the Russians are the army.

We know we have a lack of icebreakers. Now those comments from the leader of NATO are very revealing in several ways. First of all he makes it clear that NATO is totally on board with the United States new cold war on China.

It’s not just the U.S. but Europe is on board with this very aggressive policy against China. But what’s also incredible about those remarks is that the secretary general of NATO Mark Rutte who was previously the prime minister of the Netherlands he says that they don’t have a position on the U.S. taking over Greenland. So essentially he’s giving a green light to the U.S. to colonize Greenland.

This shows that NATO’s rhetoric about democracy and and human rights and respecting sovereignty it’s all completely BS. They never believed in it for a second. Of course NATO destroyed Yugoslavia as a country.

NATO turned Libya into a failed state in a 2011 war based on lies. And here we are today and the leader of NATO is saying yeah we don’t have a position. If the U.S. wants to take over Greenland fine that’s their responsibility.

We want to remain united in our war against China. That’s what the leader of NATO is saying here in this press conference at the White House. And that’s also why it’s very revealing that Trump then said that NATO may have to get involved in Greenland and he hinted that the U.S. may send more troops to colonize Greenland.

But that whole area is becoming very important and for a lot of reasons the routes are you know very direct to Asia to Russia and you have ships all over the place and we have to have protection. So we’re going to have to make a deal on that and Denmark is not able to do that. You know Denmark’s very far away and we have to do it.

We really need it for national security. I think that’s why NATO might have to get involved in a way because we really need Greenland for national security. It’s very important.

You know we have a couple of bases on Greenland already and we have quite a few soldiers and maybe you’ll see more and more soldiers go there. I don’t know. What do you think about that Pete? So don’t answer that Pete.

Don’t answer that question. But we have we have bases and we have quite a few soldiers on Greenland. So he’s sitting next to the leader of NATO the former prime minister of the Netherlands who’s giving a green light to the U.S. empire to threaten and to colonize Greenland.

This is the real face of NATO which is a colonialist institution and has always been one. Trump’s vice president J.D. Vance has made very similar comments threatening to take over Greenland and in an interview on Fox News he said that the U.S. needs to colonize Greenland because China and Russia can use sea lanes in the Arctic. Do you expect the U.S. to acquire Greenland? I think it’s possible Maria.

So here’s the thing that I think a lot of folks don’t appreciate about Greenland. It’s really important to our national security. There are sea lanes there that the Chinese use the Russians use that frankly Denmark which controls Greenland it’s not doing its job and it’s not being a good ally.

So you have to ask yourself how are we going to solve that problem solve our own national security if that means that we need to take more territorial interest in Greenland that is what President Trump is going to do. And what’s the unspoken context of these comments made by people like Trump and Vance is that the U.S. government is preparing everything that it’s doing is about preparing for a future war with China. I’m not saying it’s going to start next month or next year or even in four or five years but in the decades to come the U.S. is preparing for a war with China.

And if you don’t believe me well the man that Donald Trump appointed to be the U.S. ambassador to China David Perdue he published an article in September in which he said quote America is at war end quote. And he said that this is a new war with China and he said it’s an existential war. So this is the guy that Trump appointed to be the U.S. ambassador to China saying that we are at war with China and these U.S. government officials and U.S. imperial strategists what they’re saying is that as the U.S. prepares for a future war with China they’re going to colonize Greenland build more military bases and further militarize the Arctic to prepare for potential fighting military fighting in the Arctic region against China in the future.

And another big part of this as the U.S. empire prepares for war with China involves supply chains. China plays a key role in global supply chains especially for critical minerals. And the U.S. Congress has a committee dedicated to demonizing China and preparing for war on China.

And they wrote a comprehensive report which is called the critical minerals policy working group final report that details the U.S. empire’s plans for creating resilient critical mineral supply chains. And the U.S. government wants to remove China from all of these supply chains. This is also why Trump is imposing a deal on Ukraine in which the U.S. will get control over Ukraine’s plentiful natural resources especially its critical minerals.

The U.S. government thinks that Ukraine has trillions of dollars of critical minerals including rare earths. You know even the Western media the mainstream Western media outlets have referred to Trump’s agreement that he’s trying to impose on Ukraine as a form of economic colonialism to turn Ukraine into a resource colony for a potential future war with China. And the Trump administration also wants to colonize Greenland because it’s suspected of having billions if not trillions of dollars worth of critical minerals.

This was stated openly by U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance who said in an interview on Fox News that the U.S. wants to control Greenland’s natural resources. They’ve got great natural resources there. They’ve got an incredibly bountiful country that the Danes aren’t letting them develop and explore.

Of course Donald Trump would take a different approach if he was the leader of Greenland. In another interview on Fox News Vice President Vance made very similar comments and again he said that the U.S. wants to control Greenland’s natural resources. What’s the deal with Greenland and the Panama Canal? Are we using or considering use of military force in any of those situations? No look we don’t have to use military force Shannon.

The thing that people always ignore is we already have troops in Greenland. Greenland is really important for America strategically. It has a lot of great natural resources.

My friend Donald Trump Jr. was there a couple days ago. I think there actually is a real opportunity here for us to take leadership to protect America’s security to ensure that those incredible natural resources are developed and that’s what Donald Trump is good at. What are those natural resources? Well a survey found that Greenland has 25 of the 34 minerals that were dubbed critical raw materials by the European Commission.

Reuters created a list of some of the very profitable natural resources located in Greenland including rare earths, graphites, copper, nickel, zinc, gold, diamonds, iron ore, titanium, vanadium, tungsten, uranium, and much much more. This is another significant reason why the U.S. empire wants to colonize Greenland. So it’s about preparing for a war with China in the future so the geopolitics of it and to exploit the natural resources and critical minerals.

One again to remove China from supply chains to prepare for war with China in the future and two to profit U.S. corporations mining corporations that are going to make billions or even potentially trillions of dollars from exploiting minerals in places like Greenland and also Ukraine. Now I want to emphasize the Trump administration is very serious about colonizing Greenland and in fact a Republican congressman named Earl Carter or Buddy Carter who is from Georgia and he’s a close ally of Donald Trump. He introduced a piece of legislation into Congress called the Red White and Blue Land Act of 2025 which states, I’m not joking this is not a joke here, this law would quote authorize the president to enter into negotiations to acquire Greenland and to rename Greenland as Red White and Blue Land.

This is how tacky the U.S. empire is. This is how blatantly colonialist the U.S. empire is. They want to colonize foreign sovereign territories and rename them Red White and Blue Land after the U.S. flag.

That’s not a joke. So keep all of this context in mind when people claim that Trump is only joking supposedly when he threatens to take over Greenland and colonize the Panama Canal and colonize Gaza and potentially even colonize Canada. He’s repeatedly referred to Canada as the 51st state.

Unfortunately these are not jokes. Trump is a blatant 19th century style colonialist and of course every U.S. president is an imperialist because they’re overseeing a U.S. empire by definition. Every U.S. president is a war criminal but Trump has taken it to a new level.

He’s taken the mask off of the U.S. empire and shown the true face of the U.S. empire and the true intentions of the U.S. government and his administration is preparing for a war with China in the future. Again I’m not trying to be hysterical and saying that it’s going to start next year or even in two years but in the in the future the U.S. empire is preparing for a war with China trying to impose its hegemony on the entire western hemisphere and all of this is an attempt to try to maximize the power and influence of the U.S. empire and to weaken China because China is the only country in the world powerful enough to actually challenge the U.S. empire economically, politically, militarily in many different ways. So if you want to understand about what’s actually happening in U.S. foreign policy, what’s actually driving the policies of the U.S. government, make sure that you like and subscribe and follow our work here at Geopolitical Economy Report.

I am Ben Norton, the Editor-in-Chief. I want to thank everyone for joining me today. I will see you all next time.