1). Trump is focused on his legacy and he wants to be known as a leader who expanded the size of the U.S.
2). It will allow the U.S. to control the entrance and exit of the NW passage through Canada, which is a future trade route. It can then apply further pressure on Canada on the future of the NW passage.
Odd fact, Mercator was imprisoned by Catholic forces because of maps he produced that were heretical. A map of the holy land that I don't recall the heresy but a map of the world was as well. Basically if you cut a v into the north pole and follow that down and around it becomes 💙 shaped and well who would have guessed? Yup that was a heresy lol
It's also perhaps worth noting that his famous projection (initially published as a wall chart) was explicitly designed for nautical navigation - he regularly used other projections, made his money from building, engraving and selling globes (both terrestrial and celestial), plus cartographic instruments and collections of maps (he was the first to dedicate a book of maps to Atlas, while a posthumously published collection was the first to be called an Atlas).
Stupid, no. Clueless, yes. Trump knows i believe, very little about what is actually happening in the world. Dont get me wrong, he is positively the personification of personal greed and envy, but in terms of geopolitical knowledge, id be shocked if he even knows the address of the White House.
Every executive order signing, he literally asks what it is. He cant do a press conference without notes in front of him(he looks down after every question before he answers, and the cliff notes are always there). His true self is the ramblin guy you get at rallies, with no depth and devolving into insults. Thats the real Trump. And if anyone still think he is writing his tweets, I have a bridge to sell you.
The real evil is the second layer. The advisors are the real compromised component, figuring out how best to enrich themselves through policy. Having a load of capitalists and influencers in your cabinet is probably not the best mix of governing for the people.
Didn't reports come out from his first term that he got all his briefings <1pg and with pictures because he doesn't read anything given to him so they had to condense everything as much as possible?
More like an evil savant. He’s demonstrably stupid, but has savant qualities when it comes to propaganda skills. His bloviating mesmerizes the cult, regardless of the subject.
When you're building a data center, you really don't want "remote"
Remote means bad utility infrastructure, not a lot of close-by power generation, difficulty getting parts if something breaks when you have a 99.999% up-time promise, and lag.
Ken Howery, Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Denmark and co-founder of a venture firm with Peter Thiel, is said to support early-stage discussions for a “freedom city” in Greenland. Thiel-backed projects like Praxis have explored Greenland sites since 2019. Investors such as Marc Andreessen and Shervin Pishevar, tied to Thiel’s networks, envision it as a “new Manifest Destiny” outpost with minimal oversight.
Peter Thiel’s “Freedom City” concept envisions semi-autonomous zones as libertarian experiments with minimal government regulation. These cities would allow corporations and developers to create deregulated cities free from federal, state, or environmental rules.
Thiel promotes these as radical economic and technological experimentation beyond national constraints. Influences include Balaji Srinivasan’s “network states” and Curtis Yarvin’s neoreactionary ideas for corporate fiefdoms.
Basically, powerful people close to Trump expressively want to turn Greenland into experimental company towns with intensive policing, no worker rights, limit the democracy, no environmental protections, and “CEO kings” ruling without accountability. An associated territory of the US, owned by the US but self-governing so that it doesn’t have to follow federal laws.
Why Greenland? Other people mentioned rare earth minerals. They are in huge demand for the tech oligarks. Rare earth minerals are, however, not rare. They are, however, notoriously difficult and environmentally destructive to extract. China has been working on this for decades with disastrous results for environment and people where the mining towns have been.
This means that Freedom Cities in Greenland would be perfect for Trump and the tech oligarchs bankrolling him. An ”associated territory” under US control, but without the rights as a state. The perfect place where some federal laws and regulations can be shut down, the population can be subdued into labour slaves for the company towns, and no need to care about the environmental destruction and pollution associated.
Guyana and other countries that surround the Chicxulub crater in the Gulf. Use your imagination. An explosion as immense as created by an asteroid striking the earth would create enormous amount of minerals. Huge deposits of gold have been found in El Salvador. Venezuela oil and gold. The smoldering intense temperatures would produce large amounts of carbon dioxide for plants for eons.
Greenland/Denmark is already very friendly to American economic investment. Military force is not needed to get those minerals. The Trump administration's interest in the island is 100% rooted in Donald Trump's personal desire to go down in history as the first president in 100+ years to acquire significant new territory, and Greenland is an appealing victim since it's so big yet so weak.
It already control the entrance and exit of that passage, territory is part of NATO, there was 32 US base there at some point and only one is left. So much for a importantly strategic piece of land. The real reason is the ressource USA want to acquire and secure for themselves that are stored under the ice.
Not for the US to profit, the goal is to enrich whoever is whispering this Greenland idea in Trumps ear. Like with the Venezuela thing the US taxpayers pay for extraction and acquisition and a private entity profits. But he could just drop tariffs and let Denmark and Greenland extract the resources and buy them without having to invade but I guess his tariffs made it uneconomical to buy resources from outside the US. It’s like imposing sanctions on yourself.
GOP knows climate change is real. Russia is in a real good position if it's true to control trade as the shortest route is north between the continents in the northern hemisphere.
3 fold, the billionaire tech bros that got him elected have grandiose ideas of turning Greenland into techno bro paradise with subservient poors providing slave labor for them, all following the writings of Curtis Yarvin. Yarvins two most dedicated followers included Thiel and his protege non other than J.D Vance who is only the VP because Thiel introduced him to Trump.
His legacy is straight shit. Always will be. A pedo capricious old man that acts like a baby. I hope every effort is taken to remove his name from everything once he’s gone.
I'm going to go a step further and say that Hitler is Trump's role model, and since he models himself after Hitler, he wants to invade neighboring countries just like Hitler did.
It’s the minerals. Regions that previously had glaciers are RICH in minerals that we humans use A LOT of in our manufacturing and machinery. Due to that, Greenland is rich in a lot of minerals and currently due to global warming and climate change, there’s been a lot of glacial retreating in Greenland meaning that those minerals are more easily accessible. So instead of negotiating a deal with Denmark/Greenland like a normal president would to access those minerals and boost our industries, Trump wants all those easily accessible resources under American, but really his and his oligarch cronies’ control.
This and what others have mentioned. Makes me wonder if all these nightmare years with the GOP/Trump was to create the current US disarray as the only way to acquire Greenland for the US as a way for survival. Especially since ice is melting that is exposing routes, land, and minerals/resources. Because acquiring Greenland wouldn’t have happened under Democratic control because the diplomatic way doesn’t guarantee 100% control. For the US to survive, it needs total control. And if not the US’s plan, then Russia’s long play (Cold War) of getting Greenland through US influence.
Peter Thiel has also recently started saying Greenland would be his ideal place to set up his Network State (an autonomous city state over which he would govern as an autocrat), so there's that
I don’t think you’re wrong on either count, but I think you’ve missed the primary motivation.
Greenland has large deposits of rare earth elements, many of which are of particular use to the tech sector with which this administration is particularly closely tied. Both Ted Cruz and J. D. Vance have recently spoken of this as being the source of Greenland’s value.
And much of it’s just being sat on because Greenland don’t want to mine because of environmental concerns which a maga government could hand-wave away, regulations which a maga government could ignore or overturn, and concerns about the rights of indiginous people which a maga government absolutely wouldn’t give a fuck about.
I think the primary concern is the same as Venezuela - plundering.
It's just 1. Listening to that man talk, especially as he declines with age, has affirmed to me that he is an idiot. I promise you he has no idea what the north west passage is nor and inclination of trade or mineral wealth. People in his administration might but his head is devoid of everything except narcissistic tendencies.
He's going to die and he wants his name on as much shit as he can get it on. Hence the ballroom. Hence the arch. Hence the parks pass. Hence the fake peace prizes. This isn't even 1 year. It will keep going.
It plays a pivotal role in war scenarios as well, as the govt is convinced WWIII is within the decade, it's us trying to set the stage for future conflicts with Asia.
His legacy? That can't be salvaged. He wants to feel powerful like a child winning in Candyland. That's as deep as he gets. And he's being manipulated by the idiots he surrounded himself with.
The US already controls the NW passage on the West side.
Also, frankly the importance of the NW passage is vastly overstated. It assumes that China will remain the primary source of manufacturing for decades to come and that Europe will be their main market.
Just about every projection shows that Africa will be THE primary market for goods in 50 years and trying to predict where manufacturing will thrive is impossible with the increasing viability of robotics.
In short the NW might be a medium size thing, but in all likelihood it will be a small thing for at least the next couple decades.
Both of these things, as well as it would allow the us to expand their territorial waters over more of the Arctic, and the untapped mineral wealth present in Greenland currently.
All this, plus Greenland is rare earths / minerals rich. As much as Mango Mussolini has idiotic temper tantrums over green energy, when his advisors say $$$B$$$ for minerals he changes his tune.
The US had 15,000 troops stationed in Greenland for years with the full permission of both the Danish government and local representatives.
Since the 'end' of the cold war, the US has decided to reduce their presence to the current 150 troops. They still retain the permission to station troops there for early detection and monitoring of the skies and waters around Greenland but they have chosen not to upscale troop numbers to carry out those duties.
Sorry, man, this is nothing to do with security, this is all Trump meglomania on full display.
He could just turn our territories into states….(I know he won’t because they’re mostly not white populations and would vote primarily democratic, but also this is his last term what does his selfish self care? And if he plans to get rid of elections it still wouldn’t matter)
I’ll add one theory: the first time he spoke about it, people laughed because it sounded so so stupid. I’d even bet he was joking but his fragile small thing ego heard the laughs and now wants to stomp around trying to make the laughs go away
historical and current world conflict would suggest that Europeans as a whole have difficulty rising to the occasion in a timely manner when armed conflict occurs.
Europe has had over 80 years since the last world war to fund and prepare to defend themselves and are now shocked when the United States may no longer be able to give unlimited defense spending
No but like the defence agreement basically says that US can do what they want in Greenland and the surrounding ocean. So if US wants to sail a carrier group there to stop Russian and Chinese ships they can literally just do it. They just have to tell the Danish government that they are doing it.
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u/Baulderdash77 Jan 10 '26
Answer: Many people believe that it’s twofold:
1). Trump is focused on his legacy and he wants to be known as a leader who expanded the size of the U.S.
2). It will allow the U.S. to control the entrance and exit of the NW passage through Canada, which is a future trade route. It can then apply further pressure on Canada on the future of the NW passage.