The United States has long had its eyes on Greenland (red)
Donald Trump has picked his next target—Greenland. His talk of annexing Greenland was once brushed off as an outlandish joke in the mainstream media.
But it feels like a real possibility after the US kidnapped Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and Trump declared he would “run” the Latin American country.
The White House said, “President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region.”
Trump is far from the first US president who has tried to take over the Arctic territory.
US military intervention began during the Second World War after Denmark, which ruled Greenland as a colony, was occupied by Nazi Germany.
The island returned to Danish control after the war, but the US never relinquished its foothold on the island.
Greenland was a hot spot in the rivalry between the US and Soviet Union in the Cold War. In 1946 then US president, Democrat Harry Truman, tried to buy the island for $100 million in a deal that was kept quiet until after the Cold War.
Denmark rejected the deal, but allowed the US to set up the Pituffik Air Base on the north west of the island in 1953.
Today Trump says Greenland is “a national security priority” and “covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”
It is a clear sign of how competition between imperial powers is growing across the world. And Trump’s National Security Strategy (NSS), published in December, marked a shift in US strategy.
It has renewed focus on dominating what’s known as the Western Hemisphere—the Americas and Greenland—as part of its competition with China and other powers. “We want a Hemisphere that is free of hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets,” it said.
Greenland is tied up in the race for resources—in particular, it has deposits of 43 of 50 of the world’s “critical minerals” (see below).
And it is part of the continental shelf that holds some of the largest oil and gas deposits in the arctic.
Imperialists are also vying for control of the Arctic region to control shipping routes. The Northwest Passage sea lane is now open for periods of the year providing an alternative to Atlantic to Pacific passages.
This will become more important as the Panama Canal—which Trump wants control of too— is hit by drought and congestion.
Western politicians who refused to condemn the US attacks on Venezuela have been more bullish over Greenland. Six European leaders on Wednesday declared, “Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland”.
Keir Starmer didn’t wait to “know the full facts” before he declared, “Hands off Greenland.”
That’s because it remains a self-governing region of Denmark, a member of the Nato warmongers’ alliance. Greenland achieved home rule in 1979 and since 2009 has had the right to declare full independence if approved by a referendum and the Danish parliament.
Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen said she would “strongly urge the United States to stop the threats”.
There are splits in the Trump White House and Republicans over Greenland. The leader of the Senate Nato Observer Group, Thom Tillis, is a Republican senator from North Carolina.
He said, “When Denmark and Greenland make it clear that Greenland is not for sale, the United States must honour its treaty obligations and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark.”
But the threats are a reminder of the lengths declining US imperialism will go to in order to remain on top.
Greenland is home to 43 out of 50 of the world’s “critical raw materials”—and the US is eyeing them up.
Rare earth minerals are key to manufacturing high-tech products. That includes electric vehicles (EVs), wind turbines and almost anything that you have switched on and off such as your computer screen.
But deadly military technology, such as US F-35 jets, Tomahawk missiles and Predator drones, are dependent on it too.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and rare earths are deeply intertwined. One paper from the American Security Project, a Washington DC think tank, says the “emergence of AI” has intensified competition.
“These materials have become even more important for powering the complex computer systems now spearheading the technological arms race,” it says.
“As the US technical capacity gap with China shrinks and global trade tensions rise, rare earths and the technologies they power may determine whether the US maintains its position as the global innovation leader.
“To win what many are calling the ‘New Cold War’ with China, it is essential that the United States invests in securing and broadening access to rare earths.”
Many in the Trump White House see Greenland as key to achieving this goal.
US corporations already have mining interests on the island. The Tanbreez project has potential deposits of gallium which is key for AI chips. The Trump administration actually considered taking a direct stake in Critical Metal Corps, the private company in charge of the project.
But taking over Greenland would allow the US to bulldoze the rights of Indigenous people who have successfully resisted making Greenland a giant mine.
The problem for the US is that the Chinese state dominates the global supply of rare earth minerals. Over 60 percent of the world supply of rare earths is mined in China and over 90 percent is processed in the country.
This is no accident, but the result of a long-term strategy to prioritise extracting rare earths.
In 1992 Communist Party boss Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China’s market reforms, visited the Inner Mongolia region which has vast deposits of rare earth metals. He declared, “The Middle East has oil and China has rare earths.”
The US was the largest producer of rare earths until the 1980s, but was undercut by Chinese companies.
Today China’s position gives it leverage over rivals—the US, for example, was dependent on China for 70 percent of its rare earth imports between 2020 and 2023.
The US has one operational rare earths mine. And it doesn’t have the capacity to process “heavy rare earths” used in military technologies, meaning the US had to send ore it mined to China for processing.
This vulnerability was exposed when China tightened restrictions on rare earth imports last year.
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