US President-elect Donald Trump has resurrected debate with his proposition that the United States should buy Greenland, dubbing the island an “absolute necessity” for US national security. In a Truth Social post, Trump emphasized, “For purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.” Geographically part of North America, Greenland is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
This is hardly the first time Trump has expressed interest in buying Greenland. As president, he called off a state visit to Denmark after Danish officials rebuffed his idea of selling the island. Then-Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen replied, “Greenland is not for sale. Greenland is not Danish. Greenland belongs to Greenland. I strongly hope that this is not meant seriously,” during a visit on the island in 2019.
Currently, the US has a strategic presence in Greenland through the Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base, on the northwest coast of the island. Acquisition of Greenland has been an idea the US has considered a number of times since 1867. Trump’s latest comments about Greenland come amid another controversy where he called on Panamanian officials to lower the tolls for US vessels passing through the Panama Canal, or he would ask for it to be returned to the US.
To that, Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino reacted on social media platform X, “I want to say exactly that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its surrounding area belong and will continue to belong to Panama.” Further, he underlined, “The sovereignty and independence of our country are not negotiable. Every Panamanian carries it in his heart, here or anywhere in the world, and it is part of the history of struggle and irreversible conquest.
