The Trump administration remains firm in the acquisition of Greenland, despite the fact that the island’s leaders refuse to renounce vice president JD Vance and the second lady Usha Vance travel to the country on Friday.
“We need Greenland for national security and international security. So, I think we will go as far as we have to go,” said President Donald Trump to journalists on Wednesday.
Vance has promoted the “incredible natural resources” of Greenland in speeches that require the acquisition of the territory for their wealth in gold, copper and rare earth materials.
President Donald Trump announces tariffs on cars imports at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on March 26, 2025.
Mandel and/AFP
Trump’s ambitions are not far -fetched, according to an international relations expert who told ABC News that there are some ways in which the United States could realistically acquire the Danish autonomous territory.
However, international policy, laws and economic and political associations make Trump’s wishes extremely unlikely, according to Phillip Lipscy, Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto.
“This type of rhetoric has not been part of the formulation of American foreign policies since World War II,” he told ABC News. “If the United States advances with this, this would be a change of game.”
Lipscy said that while the acquisition of Greenland would reinforce the security of the United States in the Arctic circle, such movement is not necessary due to the strong military and naval presence of NATO nations.
Annexation is not new in the history of the United States, returning to the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, when the United States acquired an important part of what is now the central part of the country was acquired in an agreement with France.
The last time that the United States received lands that became territories was when it acquired three groups of islands of the Pacific Ocean as part of the following World War II with the United Nations in 1947 known as the Territory of Trust of the Pacific Islands.
That agreement took years of negotiation and an agreement of several nations that elaborated the geopolitical landscape of Oceania of the postwar period.
Only one of those island groups, the Mariana Islands, is still an American territory.
Lipscy said such agreements between sovereign nations have decreased throughout the decades in exchange for agreements such as limited military associations, commercial agreements and other treaties, which have been much less time and help maintain the sovereignty of nations.
Vice President JD Vance meets his wife Usha Vance while participating in a tour of the Dachau concentration camp in Dachau, southern Germany, offeb. 13, 2025.
Tobias Schwarz/AFP through Getty Images
Trump and the United States would have to negotiate with the Denmark government for a sale or an annexation of Greenland if they took care of the land without violating international law or using the military to take the country by force.
Groenland’s policy is already making such negotiation difficult, according to Lipscy.
Greenland is a self -consisting territory of Denmark with its own elected government, with the Denmark Parliament that manages international issues.
According to Lipcy, there has been a movement within the island that will be independent of Denmark that will be a key factor in any future plan of an American acquisition.
“Certainly, there may be a diplomatic solution that begins with an independent Greenland … but it is difficult to see that situation,” he said.
In the elections earlier this month, the parties in favor of independence won the greatest amount of seats in Parliament, but none wants to be part of the United States, Greenland is now forming a coalition government following the elections.
The Groenland government and its residents have protested Trump out loud since he began talking about acquiring it in December. He floated the idea previously in his first term in 2019, but did not chase her.
“Greenland belongs to the Greenlandés. We are not Americans, we are not Danish because we are Greenland.
Greenland Prime Minister, president of the Inuit Attaqatigiigitiigit Bourup Egede party arrives at the electoral table during the parliamentary elections in the Godhaabshallen Sports Hall, in Nuk, Greland, March 11.
EPA-EFE/Shuttersock
Egede also called Friday’s visit for Vances and other US officials, including national security advisor Mike Waltz and energy secretary Chris Wright, part of a “very aggressive American pressure against the Greenland community” and asked the international community to rebuke.
The Danish government has also strongly withdrawn Trump’s calls to acquire Greenland and has encouraged his residents to speak against.
“They know well that Greenland is not on sale. They know well that Groenland does not want to be part of the United States,” Danish Prime Mette Frederiksen said Wednesday in a statement.
“The attention is overwhelming and the pressure is excellent. But at times like these signs of what fabric you are made. They do not let you be intimidated. They have defended themselves for who you are, and you have demonstrated what they defend. It has my deepest respect,” he added.
Frederiksen said that other European nations are also on the side of Denmark at this time and for more than Trump, already hindering the ties between the United States and his allies since Trump recovered the position.
Lipscy said such a purchase would take a long time and probably extend far beyond Trump’s term, especially if Greenland and Danish leadership and their people continue to reject Trump’s calls.
If Trump continues to ignore the wishes of Greenland and Denmark, he would also force those relations and affect the economic, national security and policies that have been in force since the end of World War II, said Lipscy.
People participate in a march that ends in front of the United States Consulate, under the slogan, Greenland belongs to the Greenland people, in Nuuk, Greenland, March 15, 2025.
Christian Klindt Soelbeck/Ritzau Scanpix through AP
“The United States would be indicated that you can no longer trust a reliable partner and have international standards,” he said. “No one would want to make any kind of agreement, association or negotiation.”
Trump has refused to rule out military action to take care of Greenland, but Lipscy said that a complete military acquisition would not sit well in the national and international political field and, most importantly, among the US people.
A survey published by the Wall Street Journal days before Trump returned to the White House found that 68% of Americans opposed the idea.
“The idea of territorial expansion is predominantly prohibited from the president himself and there is no generalized agreement on the acquisition of the public or republican party,” Lipscy said.
The protesters have a banner that reads “Yankee Go Home” during a march to the United States Consulate during a demonstration, under the slogan, Greenland belongs to the people Greenland “, in Nuuk, Greenland, March 15, 2025.
Christian Klindt Soelbeck/Scanpix/AFP through Getty Images
He predicted that while Trump can be “hitting the table” more to realize his goal, he will not move the needle beyond his base because the general public knows that such movement would be expensive and, ultimately, he will not help national security.
“I think that even if the final objective of the United States government is to ensure the closest ties with Greenland, the way in which the administration is doing with its formulation of policies is deeply counterproductive and it is unlikely to obtain the result they are looking for,” he said.
