COLD CALCULATION

Trump Has Repeatedly Asked Advisers if U.S. Can Buy Greenland: WSJ

The president is said to have asked White House counsel to investigate the possibility after hearing of the country’s vast resources.

President Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of buying Greenland to his advisers and asked his White House counsel to look into the matter, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal. Sources cited in the report say the president has mentioned the idea of buying the ice-covered island, a self-ruling part of the kingdom of Denmark, during “meetings, at dinners, and in passing conversations,” after hearing of the nation’s vast mining resources and geopolitical position. Trump is scheduled to make his first visit to Denmark early next month, although the visit is unrelated, these people said. In 2018, the Pentagon successfully blocked China from financing three airports there.

It would not be the first time the U.S. has tried to buy the island. In 1946, following World War II, President Harry Truman offered Denmark a $100 million for the territory—which Denmark refused. Seventy-nine years earlier in 1867, the State Department also launched an inquiry into buying both Greenland and Iceland.