What happens when you hire a real estate mogul to run a country?
Apparently, sometimes, he tries to purchase land.
Green, that is.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump would like to buy the planet’s largest island: Greenland.
From the report:
In meetings, at dinners and in passing conversations, Mr. Trump has asked advisers whether the U.S. can acquire Greenland, listened with interest when they discuss its abundant resources and geopolitical importance, and, according to two of the people, has asked his White House counsel to look into the idea.
The icy mass between the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans is currently owned by Denmark.
Greenland is self-ruled by its roughly 56,000 residents; as for foreign security policy, that’s handled by the Danes.
But we’ve already got a major foot in the door:
A decades-old defense treaty between Denmark and the U.S. gives the U.S. military virtually unlimited rights in Greenland at America’s northernmost base, Thule Air Base. Located 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, it includes a radar station that is part of a U.S. ballistic missile early warning system. The base is also used by the U.S. Air Force Space Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
And ownership would be a military victory:
U.S. officials view Greenland as important to American national-security interests. A decades-old defense treaty between Denmark and the U.S. gives the U.S. military virtually unlimited rights in Greenland at America’s northernmost base, Thule Air Base. Located 750 miles north of the Arctic Circle, it includes a radar station that is part of a U.S. ballistic missile early-warning system. The base is also used by the U.S. Air Force Space Command and the North American Aerospace Defense Command.
The U.S. has sought to derail Chinese efforts to gain an economic foothold in Greenland. The Pentagon worked successfully in 2018 to block China from financing three airports on the island.
In September, the President will travel to Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen.
Trump’s idea isn’t new: In 1946, the Truman administration offered Denmark a cool $100 million for the 836,000 hunk o’ frigid dirt. In 1867, under Andrew Johnson, the State Department considered snagging it.
But Kenneth Mortensen — a real-estate agent in the island’s capital of Nuuk, told the Journal that buying the massive island’s a tricky proposition:
“You can never own land here. In Greenland, you get a right to use the land where you want to build a house, but you can’t buy. Of course, buying Greenland is a different issue altogether; I’m not sure about that”
If the White House acquires the land of the Northern Lights, I have a suggestion: Can we make a deal with Iceland to swap names? The vikings may have been great at pillaging, but their ability to call something as it was seems to have been lacking somethin’ fierce. Maybe they named Antifa, too.
-ALEX
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