In his recent address before Congress, President Trump talked once again about his big ambitions for Greenland.He told the icebound island’s “incredible people” that he supported their right to determine their future. But he ended his message with a threat, declaring, “One way or the other we are going to get it.”Jeffrey Gettleman, an international correspondent for The New York Times who recently traveled to the island, explains what Mr. Trump wants from Greenland, and whether he may actually get it.Guest: Jeffrey Gettleman, an international correspondent for The New York Times, based in London and covering global events.Background reading: Trump said the U.S. would “get” Greenland. Greenlanders were not impressed.Jeffrey Gettleman spent 12 days reporting around Greenland about its big moment.The harsh reality behind the glittering promise of Greenland’s minerals.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Photo: Ivor Prickett for The New York Times Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Chapter 1: What are President Trump's ambitions for Greenland?
From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams. This is The Daily.
And I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland.
In a recent address before Congress, Donald Trump talked once again about his big ambitions for 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 you.
But he ended his message with a threat.
I think we're going to get it. One way or the other, we're going to get it.
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Chapter 2: Why is Greenland strategically important to the U.S.?
Today, my colleague Jeffrey Gettleman on what Trump wants from Greenland and whether he may actually get it. It's Tuesday, March 11. So, Jeffrey, President Trump has repeatedly said that he wants Greenland. And before we get into whether that is even possible, can you just explain to us why is the president so interested in this place?
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.
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.
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.
Chapter 3: What historical attempts have been made to acquire Greenland?
That is so interesting because when Trump first started talking about Greenland, it just felt, I think, to me and to a lot of people, random and also kind of outrageous. But what you just laid out, those reasons for why the U.S. might be interested in Greenland actually sound quite compelling and strategic.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Okay, so it sounds like there's also a long history here of Denmark making it very clear that Greenland is not for sale.
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.
And that led to more investment, more development, a closer connection between Greenland and Denmark.
So then how does Greenland end up back in the international conversation?
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Chapter 4: How did the idea of buying Greenland resurface in modern times?
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.
President Trump has reportedly raised the possibility that the US might buy Greenland. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump has discussed the purchase with varying degrees of seriousness during his talk.
Then the story begins to leak out.
NBC News has confirmed President Trump has talked to aides and members of Congress about possibly buying Greenland.
This is a very good idea. In fact, we could move one of the Red Sox spring training camps there. And it was mostly taken as a joke.
Can we buy the Maldives? I desperately need a vacation.
The whole bizarre story prompted Conan O'Brien to make the trip over to Greenland.
Hello, I'm here to buy your country. Hello, I'm here to buy your country.
Like, why on earth would the U.S. want to buy Greenland?
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Chapter 5: What is life like in Greenland today?
We're looking at it. It's not number one on the burner.
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.
All they had to do is say, no, we'd rather not do that, or we'd rather not talk about it.
And Trump seemed to take real issue with that.
She's not talking to me. She's talking to the United States of America. You don't talk to the United States that way, at least unto me.
But then it just kind of went away.
Until now.
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.
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.
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Chapter 6: What do Greenlanders think about their future?
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.
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.
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.
Yeah. We talk to everybody in the world.
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.
What do you want for Greenland? I want freedom away from Denmark. Yeah.
Frederick felt that Greenland should break off from Denmark.
I hope that Greenland can sell fish to America.
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.
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