Greenland

awpitt

Main Streeter
Recently, Pres. Trump floated the idea of the U.S. purchasing Greenland from Denmark. This is not the first time this idea has come up. First time was by William Seward after the Alaska purchase. The more recent time was in the 1940's during the Truman years.

I was interested in hearing your thoughts on this. Is Trump on to something here? Would it be a waste? I know we already have the Thule Air Base there.
 

Chris0nllyn

Well-Known Member
Recently, Pres. Trump floated the idea of the U.S. purchasing Greenland from Denmark. This is not the first time this idea has come up. First time was by William Seward after the Alaska purchase. The more recent time was in the 1940's during the Truman years.

I was interested in hearing your thoughts on this. Is Trump on to something here? Would it be a waste? I know we already have the Thule Air Base there.

From a strategic standpoint, it's a good idea.

Denmark already said Greenland isn't for sale so much like Trump's ideas, it'll go nowhere.
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
Recently, Pres. Trump floated the idea of the U.S. purchasing Greenland from Denmark. This is not the first time this idea has come up. First time was by William Seward after the Alaska purchase. The more recent time was in the 1940's during the Truman years.

I was interested in hearing your thoughts on this. Is Trump on to something here? Would it be a waste? I know we already have the Thule Air Base there.

I wondered why he even floated the idea - it's like wanting to buy Canada. Maybe it's a good idea, but the Canadians aren't going to like it.
At least Napoleon and Russia sent the idea to US first.

Yeah, it's a fantastic idea almost at any level, although I imagine defending American soil might become more difficult.
I can barely see a downside.
 

stgislander

Well-Known Member
PREMO Member
Supposedly Greenland is full of rare earth minerals, which we are currently beholding to China for. Plus it would give us a bigger stake in Arctic oil exploration. I don't really see a downside either.
 

Kyle

ULTRA-F###ING-MAGA!
PREMO Member
He's going about it all wrong. He need to use the leftist Outrage-Machine to help build support.

Tell them Greenland is the cornerstone of the "New Green New Deal!" :jet:
 
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awpitt

Main Streeter
I was thinking that (just pretend) if Denmark was willing to sell, that buying Greenland could be a good thing.
 

Clem72

Well-Known Member
Supposedly Greenland is full of rare earth minerals, which we are currently beholding to China for. Plus it would give us a bigger stake in Arctic oil exploration. I don't really see a downside either.

The US is also full of rare earth minerals (despite the term, most of them aren't particularly rare). The process of mining and/or separating them is expensive and very dirty so we prefer to buy it as long as someone is selling it cheaply. If we bought greenland, it would be US territory and presumably would be covered by the same environmental restrictions as the rest of the US making it equally expensive.
 

Chris0nllyn

Well-Known Member
Can you link me to the bill he presented, or the policy speech he made on this? Or, was this some leaked off-hand remark that was taken to be something when it never was?

President Trump on Sunday confirmed that his administration has discussed buying Greenland from Denmark, comparing the idea to "a large real estate deal" and suggesting the island would be of strategic value to the United States.

Speaking to reporters, the president confirmed reports that first appeared on Thursday in The Wall Street Journal that he had asked administration officials to look into the possibility of purchasing the self-governing Danish territory.
https://www.npr.org/2019/08/19/752274659/no-joke-trump-really-does-want-to-buy-greenland
 

This_person

Well-Known Member
So, no bill, no policy speech - just "look into the possibility"? He confirmed that someone leaked that he asked someone to look into the possibility?

Shocking that he would do that - ask people to look into something and whether or not it is feasible. Crazy that he's so strongly planning on something like that - by asking an off-hand question. Then, to confirm that he never told anyone it was a plan, but a question - how does he get away with this type of thing?


:rolleyes:

I'm not sure why we need another territory, but it seems a strategic advantage for us. Certainly more so than American Samoa or something. Not as good as the Panama Canal, but Carter gave that away.

Maybe we could get Denmark to trade Puerto Rico for it? Nah, that would cost us too much - who in their right mind would want Puerto Rico?
 

awpitt

Main Streeter
I'm not sure why we're splitting hairs here.

No claim was made that Trump proposed legislation, asked for an appropriation, made a treaty, nor anything remotely close. The Greenland idea was floated. Trump acknowledged it, on TV. That's it.

I simply asked if it sounded like a good idea or not.
 
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SamSpade

Well-Known Member
I'm not sure why we're splitting hairs here.

No claim was made that Trump proposed legislation, asked for an appropriation, made a treaty, nor anything remotely close. The Greenland idea was floated. Trump acknowledged it, on TV. That's it.

I simply asked it it sounded like a good idea or not.

Yup. And I asked the same question as everyone else - how did it become a thing? As far as I could tell, it was something he thought about but had made zero effort to pursue. Kind of along the lines of, hey what if we put a putting green in the Rose Garden? kind of thing.

And I thought it was a good idea. I mean, we could BUY Mexico - and end the illegal immigrant problem - but we'd have to take care of millions of Mexicans. At least with Greenland, there aren't that many residents.
 

This_person

Well-Known Member
Perhaps that's why the OP said:
As I say, it sounded like it wasn't even his idea, but he concurred to have someone look into it.

Looking into it is not a bad idea, nor does the strategic capability seem to be a bad thing (quite good, in fact). As I recall, we conducted Project Iceworm with little or no knowledge of Greenland's or Denmark's knowledge.
 
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