President Trump says America needs Greenland for national security. “Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” he told reporters. “Denmark is not going to be able to do it.” The White House confirmed that acquisition is “a national security priority.” This is not a new idea. The United States has been trying to obtain Greenland since 1867.
Secretary of State William Seward started it. Fresh off purchasing Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, he commissioned a survey of Greenland describing it as a land of vast fish, game, and minerals that would empower America to “command the commerce of the world.” Congress, already mocking Alaska as “Seward’s Folly,” had no appetite for more Arctic territory. No formal offer was made.
The attempts continued. In 1910, Ambassador Maurice Egan proposed a three-way land swap under President Taft: American territory in the Philippines to Denmark, then to Germany, in exchange for Germany returning the Schleswig-Holstein region to Denmark, with Greenland going to America. Denmark rejected it. In the 1970s, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller privately suggested buying Greenland for mining. It went nowhere.
The most serious attempt came in 1946. President Truman’s Secretary of State James Byrnes offered Danish Foreign Minister Gustav Rasmussen $100 million in gold bullion for the island. The Joint Chiefs had determined Greenland was “indispensable to the safety of the United States” and “completely worthless to Denmark.” Rasmussen’s answer set the Danish position for the next eight decades: “While we owe much to America, I do not feel that we owe them the whole island of Greenland.” The offer remained classified until a Danish newspaper discovered it in 1991.
What happened next explains why the U.S. stopped trying to buy what it could simply use. A 1951 defense agreement gave America broad military access to Greenland, including the right to establish new bases if NATO deemed it necessary. Construction began on Thule Air Base, now Pituffik Space Base. A Danish scholar later wrote that Denmark’s Cold War sovereignty over the island was “fictional.” The BBC described the agreement as one that “in effect, gave the US whatever it wanted.”
In 1955, the Joint Chiefs tried again anyway, telling President Eisenhower that “sovereignty provides the firmest basis of assuring that a territory and its resources will be available for military use when needed.” The State Department killed it internally. Their reasoning: “the time was long past when such a plan would be feasible.” But they added a revealing admission—a purchase was unnecessary because “we are permitted to do almost anything, literally, that we want to.”
Trump first proposed buying Greenland in 2019. Denmark and Greenland rejected it. He canceled a state visit. Now he’s back, and his administration appears to believe Greenland has gotten cheaper.
The 1946 math: Truman’s $100 million was denominated in gold at the Bretton Woods rate of $35 per ounce—approximately 2.857 million ounces. At today’s price of $4,453 per ounce, that gold is worth $12.72 billion. Divided by Greenland’s population of 60,000, the 1946 offer valued each Greenlander at $212,000.
Trump has not named a price. According to Reuters, White House aides have discussed direct payments ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 per Greenlander. At the high end, that’s $5.7 billion total—less than half what Truman offered in today’s gold value. The administration is betting Greenland’s leverage has dropped over eighty years.
The bet has some basis. Greenland can declare independence under its 2009 Self-Government Act, but cannot afford to. Denmark provides a $614 million annual subsidy—20 percent of GDP, up to 60 percent of the government budget, more than $10,000 per resident. Forty-three percent of Greenlanders work for the government. Fishing is over 90 percent of exports. One operating mine. One international airport. No roads between its 17 towns. A working-age population projected to decline 16 percent by 2040.
Two-thirds of Greenlanders support independence. Seventy-eight percent oppose it if living standards decline. The Danish money ends the moment they leave. A 2014 study found replacing the subsidy would require 24 major projects at $750 million each. No investors existed. A 2025 reassessment: unchanged.
Alexander Gray, former Trump NSC official, testified before the Senate on acquisition. “What’s greeting them when they become independent?” he said. “Is it Russia? Is it China? Both of those powers will pounce on Greenland and take advantage of them. They will be absorbed and coerced and lose their sovereignty within hours of becoming an independent country.”
Denmark’s military presence in Greenland: four ships, four helicopters, one patrol aircraft, six dogsled teams. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers the goal is purchase. The question America has asked for 158 years remains open. The answer has always been no. The administration is betting that changes when Greenland runs out of alternatives.
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