Buying Greenland could cost as much as $700 billion

WASHINGTON — The United States could have to pay as much as $700 billion if it wanted to meet President Donald Trump’s goal of buying Greenland, according to three people familiar with the cost estimate.

The estimate was made by academics and former U.S. officials as part of planning around Trump’s aspiration to acquire the 800,000-square-mile island as a strategic buffer in the Arctic against major U.S. adversaries, these sources said. It puts a price tag equivalent to more than half the Defense Department’s annual budget on Trump’s national security priority, which has fueled anxiety in Europe and on Capitol Hill amid his rhetoric about seizing Greenland since he ordered a U.S. military raid to capture Venezuela’s president and his wife.

Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, is not for sale. Officials from Denmark and Greenland rejected Trump’s claims that the United States would acquire Greenland “one way or another.” A senior White House official, however, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been instructed to present a proposal to purchase Greenland in the coming weeks, calling such a plan a “high priority” for Trump.

On Wednesday, Rubio and Vice President JD Vance are expected to meet with officials from Denmark and Greenland, who have traveled to Washington to better understand Trump’s intentions and proposals. The meeting follows lower-level discussions last week between officials from Denmark and Greenland and the White House National Security Council.

“I would love to make a deal with them,” Trump told reporters Sunday when asked if there was a deal Greenland could offer. “It’s easier. But one way or another we will have Greenland.”

In the hours leading up to Wednesday’s meetings, the message from the Greenlandic government was consistent.

“Greenland does not want to belong to, be governed by or be part of the United States,” Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt said upon arriving in Washington on Tuesday. “We choose the Greenland we know today, as part of the Kingdom of Denmark.”

Greenland’s Minister of Trade and Mineral Resources, Naaja Nathanielsen, said Tuesday that messages from the United States are causing so much concern among Greenlanders that they are having trouble sleeping.

“It really fills the agenda and the discussions around households,” Nathanielsen said at a news conference in London. “So we are under enormous pressure and people are feeling the effects. »

Despite the anxiety, Nathanielsen said, “we have no intention of becoming American.”

The United States can already send more troops to Greenland and expand its military and security capabilities there under the current agreement between the two governments, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said.

“Why invade the cow when they sell you the milk at relatively good prices?” said the manager.

While some Trump administration officials have said the United States could use military force to take the island of 57,000 people, some administration officials and allies outside the White House view a U.S. attempt to buy or form a new alliance with it as the most likely outcome.

Another option under consideration is forming what is known as a pact of free association with Greenland, an agreement that would include U.S. financial aid in exchange for allowing the United States to maintain a security presence there, NBC News reported. The United States has similar agreements with the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau. Adding Greenland to the mix could satisfy part of Trump’s broader vision for U.S. hegemony in the Western Hemisphere — and could be less costly than the estimated purchase price for Greenland of $500 billion to $700 billion.

In 1916, the United States agreed to purchase Caribbean islands from Denmark and in return acknowledged that the United States “would not object” to the Danish government having political and economic interests in all of Greenland, per the agreement at the time.

Trump has said he wants to acquire Greenland to have more rights to the land, comparing it to owning rather than renting property. The property could bring Greenland closer to a U.S. territory like Guam, American Samoa or Puerto Rico and solidify Washington’s strategic relationship with the island in the long term.

Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland stems in part from fears that its people might seek independence and that, if they succeed, the island’s 27,000 miles of coastline could fall into the hands of adversaries like Russia or China, according to some experts on the issue and congressional testimony from former U.S. officials.

Greenlanders largely reject the idea of ​​becoming part of the United States. An independent poll last year found that about 85 percent rejected the idea.

Trump, a former real estate mogul, has long had his sights set on Greenland, saying the United States needs it for national security in the Arctic Circle and would consider acquiring it. When Trump expressed interest in purchasing the island during his first administration, the idea was not considered a top priority, even by some of his closest aides.

This has changed dramatically during his second term, as his plans on Greenland are taken much more seriously, both within his administration and among America’s allies. Trump began making public overtures shortly after taking office last January. In December, he named Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland, reigniting concerns among Danish and Greenlandic officials.

Today, there is a growing sense in Europe and the United States that Trump will inevitably gain ground in his Greenland aspirations as he seeks to expand American influence in the Western Hemisphere. The question is how – economic coercion, diplomacy, military force – and to what extent.

Trump’s threat to seize Greenland, including leaving on the table the possibility of doing so through military force, could be aimed at pressuring Greenland and Denmark to come to the table to discuss how the United States can be better positioned there, said Ian Lesser, a fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a nonpartisan think tank. “I still think the prospects for the use of force on this issue are still very low,” Lesser said.

“It’s useless,” he added. “What good would that do? It would stir up incredible tensions within the NATO alliance and could even mean the end of the NATO alliance, and I don’t think the president would have any support. [from] Capitol Hill for all this.

Trump’s remarks against Greenland were met with resistance on Capitol Hill, including among some Republican allies who welcomed his administration’s military operation in Venezuela.

On Tuesday, a bipartisan duo of senators introduced legislation that would prohibit the Department of Defense from using funds to assert control over the sovereign territory of a NATO member state without that state’s authorization or approval from the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s primary policy-making body, a clear message of opposition to Trump’s rhetoric on the Greenland acquisition.

Greenland, which Vance and his wife Usha visited last year, is home to a small U.S. military presence at the Pituffik space base. The base includes a contingent of the U.S. Space Force and other military personnel who man radar systems that serve as an early warning system for any Russian attacks. The United States and Denmark also regularly share intelligence on what the military is seeing in the region.

Greenland has long been receptive to the idea of ​​hosting more U.S. military assets or negotiating over its strategic resources, which include rare earth minerals.

“It is possible to find a way to ensure a stronger presence in Greenland” for the US military, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said last year. The United States, Frederiksen said, is “already there and they can have more possibilities.” Frederiksen recently expressed concern that any effort by Trump to take Greenland by force would risk destroying NATO, as Denmark and the United States are both members.

And last week, the United States’ European allies, including Denmark, said in a joint statement that they “will not stop defending” Greenland’s values ​​of sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“Greenland belongs to its people,” they said.