Jeffrey Gettleman
Appearances
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
There's a sense that Denmark doesn't respect Greenland and that there's this long legacy of racism, exploitation, treating Greenlanders as second-class citizens. And Greenlanders come from a different culture. They're part of this wider Inuit community that lives in the Arctic Circle, in Alaska, in Canada, in parts of Russia.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
They have their own language, their own traditions, their own history of how they survive in this very hostile environment. And I met a number of people who said that they were mistreated, they were made fun of, that they were called racial slurs. I also heard a lot about the colonial legacy and things that Denmark had done when Greenland was a colony. They destroyed local traditions.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
They outlawed some of the religious practices that Greenlanders had been doing for centuries. And there was this scandal in the 1960s and 70s where Danish doctors were inserting IUD birth control devices into Greenlandic girls as young as like 12 in an attempt to keep the population down. And they did this to thousands of girls without them really understanding what was being done to them.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And this was kept secret forever. until just a few years ago. And when this scandal broke and the news spread that all these women in Greenland had been subject to this, it caused a lot of anger towards Denmark. All these things together, that's what brings us to this moment where just about everybody now wants independence.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And there's a lot of interest in controlling that space by Russia, by China, by European nations, and by the U.S., There's also vast mineral resources on Greenland. There are huge deposits of iron, zinc, copper, platinum, rare earth elements that have become really important in high-tech industries. And that's another reason why Trump and his circle are really interested in taking over the island.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
Greenlanders have the right to call a referendum and declare independence. They only got that right in 2009. But they haven't done it yet because there's a lot of big, sticky issues that they have to solve before they can become their own independent country. Like what? More than 50% of Greenland's budget comes directly from Denmark.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
Hundreds of millions of dollars each year comes from Denmark to pay for roads, schools, social services, education, just about everything. And if they became independent, they'd need to fill that hole. One solution, many Greenlanders say, is developing their mineral industry.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
But it's been really hard developing this sector because of the extreme cold weather, the ice that blocks ports, the fact that there's very few roads on Greenland. And so the mineral trade seems like a long-term solution, but not necessarily what Greenland would need right now if it declares independence.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
That's a really good question. And I talked to a lot of people about exactly that. And what I kept hearing was talk about a free association agreement. The U.S. has relationships with a few countries in the South Pacific where America pays for many of their expenses. And in turn, these countries allow the U.S. to use their territory for military bases. They vote with the U.S. at the U.N.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
They're very loyal allies of the United States of America. And several people I met in Greenland, including politicians, but also less political types, had the same thought. And they said, we should establish a free association agreement with the U.S. where we are an independent country, but we have a very close relationship with the U.S.,
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
Yeah, a lot of Greenlanders feel that way. But even from the ones who are a little nervous, I get the sense of enjoyment and comeuppance that finally we're giving it back to Denmark. And already all the attention that the U.S. has put on Greenland is helping the Greenlanders extract certain concessions from Denmark.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And there are things that they have been asking for for years, like Greenlandic being established as a national identity, being able to export their fish directly to world markets. These are things that Denmark resisted for a long time. And just in the past few months, with Trump breathing down their neck, they have agreed to make these concessions.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
I don't think a U.S. invasion of Greenland is very likely. But I do think that after 150 years of trying to take over Greenland, the U.S. is closer today than it's ever been. Even if Greenland doesn't become part of America, most people there want to break off from Denmark, and many of them want a closer relationship with America. What this means is that the U.S.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
is essentially pulling an enormous chunk of territory away from Europe at a time when things really couldn't be worse between the U.S. and Europe. It would also mean that the U.S. establishes a big foothold in a very strategic area, the Arctic.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
But there's one big problem. Greenland is actually part of Denmark. It's been like that for more than 300 years. The Danes colonized Greenland in the 1700s. Denmark still controls its foreign policy, its defense, and other important issues, even though Greenland is part of North America.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And so this place that no one was really talking about five or ten years ago, it could actually turn out to be one of the more dramatic examples of a new geopolitical realignment.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
Totally. It seemed really random when it first came up. But this isn't the first time a U.S. president has been interested in Greenland. The U.S. has seen Greenland as this important piece of territory for a long time. In the 1860s, the U.S. had purchased Alaska from Russia, and Greenland was seen as the next big piece of territory to expand America's ambitions in the North American continent.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
It didn't go anywhere, and it just kind of died. It then came up again in 1910. There was an American plan to acquire Greenland through a trade of different islands, but that didn't go anywhere either. And then in World War II, Nazi Germany took over Denmark as part of its expansion across continental Europe.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And the United States was really worried that there could be a Nazi incursion on Greenland as a stepping stone towards the United States. And so the U.S. established these bases all around Greenland. And then after the war, America thinks, hey, you know, it just makes perfect sense that we take over Greenland forever.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And the United States offered $100 million in gold to Denmark, which had been shattered by World War II. But the Danes were not interested. Again, they just did not want to get rid of this territory.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
Absolutely. So after World War II, Denmark decided we need to keep Greenland. And in 1953, they made a decision to take it from being a colony to being part of Denmark. And what that meant for Greenlanders was that they were now citizens of Denmark. They were entitled to the same rights, to the same benefits. They were Danish citizens.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And that led to more investment, more development, a closer connection between Greenland and Denmark.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
So for decades, it really was not in the international conversation. The Cold War was happening. The U.S. seemed to be happy with having its military bases on Greenland. Both Denmark and the U.S. are members of NATO. And so Greenland was seen as a NATO territory. And the American government did not pursue a serious plan to take it over until 2019.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
That's when Donald Trump, during his first term, floats this idea that the U.S. should buy Greenland from Denmark. A small team is set up to work on this, and there's several meetings between American officials and Danish officials to discuss this. But it's all kept secret.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And all this culminated in the prime minister of Denmark very publicly announcing that Greenland was not for sale. She even called this whole idea absurd.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
Until just a few weeks ago when it came back with a vengeance. And with all this talk about Greenland, Greenland suddenly in the news, I thought it was important to go there and try to understand how the people of Greenland are looking at this enormous geopolitical situation and to figure out what do the Greenlanders want.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And so I flew to Greenland and I spent almost two weeks talking to different people from different walks of life. And what I found was this surprising openness to having a closer relationship with the U.S.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
I found Greenland beautiful and very different from any place I had ever been. It's really icy and snowy. All you can see is white. White mountains, white snow on the ground, icebergs floating in the ocean. And that ice defines life. And I went to this one place on the west coast called Ilulisset, which is a town of about 5,000 people.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And one morning I went with the family and we got to a place where there were all these guys standing around these holes that they had smashed into the ground, reeling up these lines and catching lots of fish. And in this little town, everything revolves around fishing, even though it's like a very difficult environment to work in. Minus 20 degrees below zero Celsius, winds blowing.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And I met this fisherman named Frederick. He's gutting one fish after the other, throwing the scraps on the snow and pulling out another fish, doing it again and again.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And I just started talking to him right off the bat. America and Trump is a headline. He tells me there are all these headlines about Greenland in the U.S. So he's really aware of this conversation that's going on about the fate of Greenland.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
He tells me that he's frustrated that Denmark still controls many aspects of life in Greenland. And one of those is its fishing industry. And he felt that all this attention that Trump is putting on Greenland is going to create more opportunities where they're going to be able to strike up its own relationships and trade agreements.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And that will open doors for all kinds of business, including the fishing business.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
Another person I met that day was Lila. Her family runs a small tourism business, and she took us out across the ice on her dog slits.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
Lila told me that her business has really struggled to compete with these bigger Danish companies that have come to the island. She says they have more resources and much better connections abroad.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And so given all that, I asked her, did she want to break off from Denmark? Do you think independence would help Greenland?
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
She thinks that with independence, there will be more opportunities for locals like her.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
Well, there's a few reasons. The first reason is its size and its location. Greenland is enormous. It's the largest island in the world. It has only 56,000 people, but it's this gigantic space. And it's located in a very strategic spot along the Arctic Ocean where shipping lanes are increasingly important as global warming melts ice that had blocked those areas for forever up until now.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
So Leila sees herself as a Greenlander. She said that she's not European. She doesn't want to be American. She feels very strongly about her Greenlandic identity. But she did say that she wanted closer relations with the U.S. And she felt very confident that if that happened, it would improve the lives of Greenlanders.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
But not everybody I talked to was so excited about all this attention that Trump is putting on Greenland. I met the mayor of Ilulissat. His name is Pele Jeremiason. And he's pro-independence just like everybody we met there. But he's also worried. Do you see all this attention with Trump in the U.S.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And he's been paying close attention to everything that Trump is doing. And he brought up the Panama Canal, troops being sent to the U.S.-Mexico border. And his point to me was, Trump says one thing, it seems really outlandish. And then he does it. Or maybe he doesn't do it. And his capriciousness and unpredictability is what makes the mayor nervous.
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
But he does. And he was asking me, so what do you think Trump is going to do about Greenland? He was pointing right at me. What do you predict?
The Daily
Trump’s Bid for Greenland
And I just kind of shrugged and said, I really don't know. And the mayor shook his head and he seemed genuinely upset and said, we're a tiny country. He's a superpower country. So what can we do when he comes? What can we do if Trump comes? What can we really do?