Why does Trump want Greenland to be part of the U.S.?

Why does the United States want control of Greenland? President Trump has made it clear that he thinks the U.S. needs to control the Arctic island to ensure the security of America and its NATO allies, a point those allies — and Greenland — vehemently disagree with.

But there’s more at play here, including a valuable shipping route and access to mineral resources.

Here’s what interests the U.S. about the semi-autonomous Danish territory:

“It’s so strategic right now” 

Greenland spans about 836,000 square miles, much of it covered by the Greenland Ice Sheet. It’s home to only around 60,000 people and is a semi-autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark with its own elected government.

Its location between the U.S., Russia and Europe makes it strategic for both economic and defense purposes — especially as melting sea ice has opened up new shipping routes through the Arctic. It is also the location of the northernmost U.S. military base.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly claimed the U.S. needs Greenland for national security purposes.

“It’s so strategic right now,” he told reporters on Sunday, Jan. 4. “Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place … We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

“The Americans have a strong interest in overseeing the activities of foreign countries in Greenland because it’s such a big security asset for foreign states, and due to that, any investment or activity, from the American point of view, may be seen as a security threat,” Frank Sejersen, associate professor at the University of Copenhagen, told CBS News earlier this year.

Control over a new, valuable route for shipping

Melting sea ice around Greenland has created more opportunity to use the Northern Sea route — allowing shippers to save millions of dollars in fuel by taking a shorter route between Europe and Asia that was long only passable in warmer months.

A Russian commercial vessel, aided by an icebreaker, first traversed the route in the winter in February 2021.

Greenland’s underground resources

Greenland has reserves of oil, natural gas and highly sought after mineral resources.

Those mineral resources, which include rare earth elements, “have only been lightly explored and developed,” Jose W. Fernandez, the U.S. Department of State’s undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment, said at a Minerals Security Partnership event in Greenland in November 2024.

Greenland may have significant reserves of up to 31 different minerals, including lithium and graphite, according to a 2023 report assessing the island’s resources. Both minerals are needed to produce batteries for electric vehicles and a wide array of other technologies.

Currently, lithium production is dominated by Australia, Chile and China, while China produces about 65% of the world’s graphite, the report noted.

Greenland also has the potential to provide a significant amount of rare earth minerals such as Neodymium, which is used to make the magnets used in electric motors, the 2023 report said. 

China produces about 70% of rare earth elements, and demand for rare earth minerals continues to grow with technological advances and the rapid spread of consumer devices that require the resources.

There are, however, significant hurdles to mining in Greenland, including environmental and cost issues.

Most Greenlanders don’t want to be American

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said Tuesday that his country wants good relations with the U.S. and did not “think that there might be a takeover of the country overnight, and that is why we are insisting that we want good cooperation.”

A poll conducted a year ago showed that 85% of Greenlanders did not want to be part of the United States.

“He can’t just take it like that,” Daniel Rosing, a trainee electrician who said he was proud of being a Greenlander, told CBS News ahead of a visit last year to the island by Vice President JD Vance and his wife.

A brief history of Greenland 

The Kingdom of Denmark began colonizing Greenland in the early 18th century, hundreds of years after Vikings from the same distant land first arrived to set up residency. 

It was not until World War II that the U.S. established a presence on the island, when then-Danish Ambassador to the U.S., Henrik Kauffmann, refused to surrender to the rule of Denmark’s Nazi occupiers.

Denmark was liberated from Nazi occupation in 1945, and the European nation carried on as a colonial ruler of Greenland until 1953, when it fully laid out its relations with the island as a semi-autonomous territory.

The U.S. never left the Pituffik Space Base, which was established during WWII.