Guest post by Ted Malloch
When President Trump tweeted about buying the autonomous territory of Greenland and later jokingly promised “not” to build a gold Trump Tower there, many pundits called it, “absurd “or “crazy.”
But Trump has now called off a long-planned 2-3 September visit to Denmark after the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, herself called his idea of the US buying Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, “absurd” and dismissed it completely.
But is it`?
Greenland, the world’s largest island, is an unconnected territory to Denmark (population 5.7 million) and has been for only a millennium.
It has a population of just 57,000, 89 percent of whom are Inuit (Eskimos).
Socialist Denmark does next to nothing for them and the rates of unemployment, alcoholism and suicide are exceptionally high.
Geographically the island is considered a part of North America, not Europe.
It is and has been an important part of the Artic, an area of significant interest to both Russia and China.
With considerable mineral wealth, gold, and potential oil & gas reserves, Greenland is not something to exactly sneeze at.
It is absolutely strategic.
The US already has valuable bases there, including the vitally important, Thule Air Force base, which is critical in forward positioning of nuclear bombers and surveillance radar systems.
More crucially—Greenland has known and present production of Rare Earth Minerals, critically important to the high-tech future and manufacturing of everything — from computers to iPhones to sensors and batteries.
China is the dominant player in this market and has recently threatened to cut the US off from its supply.
The West badly needs alternatives.
Last year, notably, The People’s Republic of China offered to fund three airports in Greenland to develop minerals. It wants to control this strategic output and bring Greenland into its fold—perhaps, extending its mercantilist Belt and Road Initiative there.
President Trump is no fool and has a career as a real estate wheeler dealer. This would be a legacy deal of a lifetime.
Is obtaining Greenland really such a “crazy” and “absurd” idea?
Remember the US bought the US Virgin Islands from the same, Kingdom of Denmark in 1917. Already then, Greenland was on the table.
US history is replete with important and telltale land deals.
“Steward’s Folly”—the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867 turned out to be one of the best purchases of all time.
The 1803 purchase by President Thomas Jefferson from France, of the Louisiana Territory, greatly expanded the size and wealth of the United States and defined its very westward expansion.
Leftist critics have denounced everything-Trump and see this as a colonialist bent or a mockery of native rights.
Well, Denmark is in fact the colonizer and has a bill exceeding $700 million a year to carry the island of Greenland, something its own citizens loudly complain over.
This is Denmark which sits as a near nonpaying member of NATO since it has never met its 2 percent obligations and allows the US to pick up the tab for defending it (and Greenland).
Why not put a plebiscite to the actual native peoples of Greenland since they are not an independent country, nor are they integrated into Denmark proper?
Here is the Question: Would you like to become citizens of the richest country on earth and develop, while each receiving a direct nontaxable payment from the US Treasury for your island ,paid as a sovereign fund allotting you a significant stipend every year for perpetuity or do you want to stay as a colony of oppressive Denmark and receive nothing?
I think I can probably guess the answer.
