Alaska is a state. Do you think Greenland would become a state before Puerto Rico (or DC for that matter)? If the Greenlanders think they’d get two Senators in Congress they are just as delusional as Trump.
The Inuit of Greenland have no power in Denmark now, and they're Danish citizens. Denmark has a proportional governement, ie Greenlanders have no power at all in the Danish parliament. Sheer numbers matter.
They'd be trading no power + poverty with Denmark for no power + money with USA. They'd also be trading being part of a nation with virtually zero international power for a country with the most international power.
Greenland would also be on what is called the "frontline".
Greenland is on the frontline now between USA and Russia. And was the entire cold war. That won't change regardless of what flag flies on it.
There is no evidence Greenland would be compensated for any mineral rights. Or benefit from any spending or riches from the US.
There's no evidence this is about oil or mineral rights at all. We're just speculating. But Trump is a businessman. I think he understands how deals work. The Greenlanders also understand business and understand that they'll only sell themselves if the price is right.
As a reminder, Trump is trying to reduce benefits in the US, not expand them. Forget the whole health care coverage thing.
That's ideology. Not evidence of Trumps evil. He's a Republican doing the Republican thing. You can't blame him for doing exactly the thing he promised he'd do in the election. If anything this is part of the platform that elected him, ie the will of the people.
To make matters a tad bit more confusing, there is already an agreement between the US and Denmark about
military access to Greenland, which makes this entire Trump process ridiculously stupid. Trump wants to protect the NW Passage, he can ask Denmark about a base in Northern Greenland. Of course, if this was about providing protection to the NW Passage and not a long term middle finger to Europe to reduce their access, we could see why Trump might not be going the existing framework pathway.
USA already has a military base on Greenland. In fact, since WW2 there's been more US soldiers stationed on Greenland than Danish soldiers. That's still the situation.
Obviously this isn't about national security. That's an incredibly stupid justification. When it comes to that, USA already has everything they could ever want. Up until now, Denmark could not have been cooperating more with USA. Despite Trumps all silly statements, there's no talk about forcing USA to close the base.
It's like someone eating the entire carton of popcorn that was supposed to be for everyone, and then cries about that it's not fair that it ran out. Trump isn't making any sense. I think it's just a power play. Showing everyone how USA can push everyone around.
Here's another fun fact. When you call the Danish authorties it'll be answered by Greenland operators. They do all phone support for the Danish govornement. Denmark has outsourced as much administration to Greenland as possible. This is purely a method to create jobs in a region that has very little going for it, financially. Not everyone wants to be a fisherman. Which is another reason Greenlanders might want to start extracting the oil. It'll create jobs.
Create jobs. So out of the blue, the Inuit will be capable of mining or running a mine? Any mineral production will require notable infrastructure improvements as well. Greenland will become like North Dakota, lots of jobs and nowhere to live (and as a bonus, no way to get to the job).
You have such little faith in the capability of the inuit. Denmark has plenty of oil rigs currently operating in the North sea. Many inuit workers. Denmark is now winding down their oil production and are planning to phase out the entire industry by 2050 (because oil is so last century *roll eyes*). So Greenland now has plenty of trained inuit oil rig specialists retraining as tourist guides for hikers. This number will keep increasing.
Here's the thing. Because of the thick ice sheet getting to most of the Greenland oil has been prohibitively expensive. But as the ice sheet retreats that oil is starting to make financial sense to extract. The same goes for the mineral wealth locked up in the permafrost under Greenland. It's suspiscious that Trump started to show an interest for Greenland just when the specialists started talking about the economic viability of Greenland oil. Very suspicious.
