There's a Particularly Sinister Explanation for Why Trump Wants to Seize Greenland

"On the campaign trail leading up to his election in 2024, Donald Trump made a plenty of bizarre promises that have fallen by the wayside. Arguably the strangest one he's still harping about? Greenland - a massive island in the Arctic Ocean, currently a territory of Denmark, that he desperately wants to seize. Geopolitical analysts and pundits have spilled plenty of ink over the past year trying to come up with some rational explanation for Trump's obsession with the idea. One of the simplest, the New York Times suggests - yet somehow the most cynical - has to do with the scientific certainty that Greenland's ice will soon melt away."

"From September 2024 to September 2025, Greenland lost a staggering 105 billion metric tons of ice, according to researchers at the Danish Meteorological Institute. Between 1985 and 2022, Greenland's ice sheet has shrunk by some 2,000 square miles. These trends are sure to continue in the years to come. Beneath all that ice and permafrost is a veritable treasure trove of minerals like graphite, zinc, and rare earths. Basically, as the climate warms and Greenland's ice melts, more and more of those minerals will become available for extraction."

""His fixation on Greenland is an admission that climate change is real," John Conger, an advisor to the Center for Climate and Security told the NYT. If Trump or his advisors really are intrigued by Greenland because they're anticipating a thawing world, that puts them in good company with Trump's longstanding allies in Russia, where the ruling oligarchy is said to be banking on a similar strategy for the country's immense frozen expanses."

Donald Trump has repeatedly promoted acquiring Greenland and treats the island as a strategic prize. Observers link the fixation to access to resources exposed by accelerating ice melt. From September 2024 to September 2025 Greenland lost 105 billion metric tons of ice, and between 1985 and 2022 the ice sheet shrank by about 2,000 square miles. Melting and thawing increasingly reveal graphite, zinc, and rare earths that could be mined. Public denial of climate science combined with interest in Greenland implies political cynicism. Russia's ruling elites are pursuing a similar thaw-driven resource strategy.

Read at Futurism