Trump’s Greenland strategy buries Europe’s illusions, blocks China and Russia, and secures America’s Arctic future.
US President Donald Trump has described the emerging Greenland framework as a “great solution for the United States of America and all NATO nations.” In reality, the plan is even more consequential: it marks the end of European pretenses over security and the reassertion of American dominance in the Arctic and the Western Hemisphere.
Under the framework, the United States would designate parts of Greenland as sovereign US military zones—potentially through an indefinite lease similar to Guantanamo Bay. These areas would function as de facto US territory, enabling unrestricted military operations, intelligence activity, infrastructure development, and rare-earth mineral extraction without Danish interference.
Although the US already operates bases in Greenland with Danish consent, the new arrangement would eliminate reliance on local permits and political goodwill. This would allow Washington to deploy advanced assets and accelerate construction of an Israel-style Golden Dome missile defense system, extending North American protection deep into the Arctic.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has publicly dismissed Greenland’s future as irrelevant to Moscow—but US-led negotiations with Denmark and Greenland ensure that Russia and China will never gain a foothold there.
Greenland is geographically part of North America, placing it squarely within the Western Hemisphere and under the logic of the Monroe Doctrine. That doctrine—reaffirmed in the US National Security Strategy of November 2025—holds that foreign interference in the hemisphere is a hostile act. The message was already demonstrated when the US moved decisively in Venezuela to capture its president on narco-terror charges.
The Greenland dispute is not truly about Greenland. It is about Europe—and its demonstrated inability to defend itself, let alone the Arctic. European communiqués offer words; Washington brings power. As US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put it: Greenland can only be defended if it is part of the United States—and once it is, it will not need defending.
History supports this conclusion. Since the 19th century, Washington has repeatedly explored acquiring Greenland—from William H. Seward’s era through post-WWII offers and Joint Chiefs proposals. During World War II, the US occupied Greenland under the Monroe Doctrine after Nazi Germany seized Denmark, and never fully relinquished its strategic role. Today, Pituffik Space Base remains irreplaceable for Arctic air defense and polar-orbiting satellites.
According to SpaceNews, any satellite in polar or sun-synchronous orbit requires Arctic ground stations. Losing Pituffik would cripple US military and commercial space operations—an unacceptable risk.
Europe’s record only reinforces Trump’s position. The disastrous British plan to surrender Chagos Islands while paying billions for territory it already owns is a case study in strategic incompetence. A future Danish government could similarly cave to pressure from adversaries. America cannot outsource its survival.
Trump has openly declared the post-WWII “rules-based order” finished—a system built on the fiction that unequal powers are equals. His rejection of a G7 meeting called by Emmanuel Macron on Greenland was not discourtesy; it was realism.
The lesson of Ukraine is brutal and clear: Europe cannot defend itself against Russia. The lesson of Greenland is clearer still: Europe cannot defend itself against America either. With the US funding roughly 67% of NATO, Washington is done pretending.
Greenland is not Denmark’s to gamble, Europe’s to moralize about, or China’s to infiltrate.
The future of Greenland is American.
