President-elect Donald Trump is once again touting his plans to buy Greenland, the Danish territory in the Arctic.
Trump escalated rhetoric around the island during a press conference Tuesday, refusing to rule out the use of military force to get ahold of it if needed.
The island, with 56,000 inhabitants, is an autonomous territory of Denmark, and both the Danish government and local authorities have repeatedly said that the island is not for sale. Denmark ruled over it for more than 200 years and retains some control over its defense and foreign policy.
“People don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it,” Trump claimed. “But if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries questioned Trump’s “obsession” with the territory on Wednesday – and it is something that has captured the president-elect’s imagination for many years.
The idea of buying Greenland initially came to Trump from cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder, according to the 2022 book The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021 by Peter Baker of The New York Times and Susan Glasser of The New Yorker. Trump and Lauder have known each other since their college days.
The notion was subject to months of internal study and debate, much to the bemusement of cabinet secretaries and aides to the president.
“A friend of mine, a really, really experienced businessman, thinks we can get Greenland,” Trump told his National Security adviser, according to the book. “What do you think?”
That prompted the creation of a team to look into the idea, and the creation of memo laying out the options, such as a lease proposal, much like a New York real estate agreement.
Following a meeting in the Oval Office, a member of the cabinet found the idea of acquiring Greenland delusional. There was fear among some aides that the idea leaking out would lead to a diplomatic incident, according to the Times.
The National Security Council staff worked on the issue for months, for Trump to subsequently claim it was his idea all along.
“I said, ‘Why don’t we have that?’” he told the authors. “You take a look at a map. I’m a real estate developer. I look at a corner, I say, ‘I’ve got to get that store for the building that I’m building,’ etc. It’s not that different.”
“I love maps. And I always said: ‘Look at the size of this. It’s massive. That should be part of the United States,’” he added at the time.
But in fact Lauder, the Estée Lauder heir, had spoken to Trump about the idea at the beginning of his presidency, even offering himself as a back channel to the Danish government to negotiate, according to the book.
