It's no secret that Greenlanders broadly do not care for President-elect Donald Trump's increasingly obsessive demands for Denmark to sell their island to the United States. Nevertheless, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, Trump's interest in Greenland has kicked off a fierce political debate within the autonomous colony.
This comes as Trump is refusing to rule out using military power to bring Greenland closer to the American sphere — and after his son Donald Trump Jr. paid a visit to the island that resulted in eyebrow-raising photo-op events and left him griping about "Danish fake news."
"About 90% of the Greenlandic population are Inuit and nearly all of Greenland’s main political parties support independence. The territory has its own parliament but relies on the Danes for security and monetary policy," noted the report. "Ahead of an election in April, Greenland’s politicians are locked in debate over whether to embrace Trump to further their quest for independence, or reject him."
The U.S. has had a presence in Greenland for a long time, as its location is of strategic military importance and both the U.S. and Denmark are allies under the NATO umbrella.
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"Shortly after Trump’s election win," the report continued, Greenlandic finance minister Erik Jensen "put out feelers to invite the president-elect to visit Greenland, saying it was time for more cooperation with the U.S. to bolster the economy. 'We want some good cooperation with the U.S. because we have a lot of natural resources we would like to use to ultimately become more independent,' he said. In an office at the other end of the corridor sat Pipaluk Lynge-Rasmussen, a politician who says binding with America is a bad idea, adding that it has a record of steamrolling indigenous populations to access natural resources."
Even most of the Greenlandic officials who are interested in closer ties to the U.S., however, don't appear to buy into Trump's idea of the U.S. acquiring the territory — it's just part of a broader scheme to distance themselves further from Denmark and ultimately become their own country.
Denmark, for its part, has consistently said Greenland isn't for sale, and recently increased military support to the island amid Trump's escalating interest.