U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Greenland says Trump “has not forgotten” about his desire to take over the Danish territory, saying it was raised as recently as last weekend.
In a podcast released Wednesday, Jeff Landry, who can be the sitting governor of Louisiana, said the U.S. could “bring them right into the fold” with “some little things,” like sending more military personnel and opening up more trade, which he claimed Greenlanders support.
“He was talking to me Saturday night, ‘We want to get Greenland,’” Landry said of Trump while speaking on Breitbart’s Alex Marlow Show. “He has not forgotten about it.
“I laid out some things with the president,” Landry said later. “Let me let you know, from a strategic natural resources standpoint, that place is unbelievably necessary to us. I mean, there’s an incredible oil and gas reserve there. There are great rare earth minerals there. There’s great fishing there. I mean, it’s an incredible place, so we’re gonna get it.”
Trump’s vocal push to amass Greenland early this 12 months — and refusal to rule out using military force to achieve this — rattled Greenland and Denmark, a NATO ally that controls the self-governing island, and threatened to further rupture U.S. relations with the remainder of the alliance.
Trump backed down on his threats in late January after speaking with NATO leaders and agreeing to talks between the U.S., Greenland and Denmark.
Landry visited Greenland in May and claimed on Wednesday’s podcast that, based on that trip, “the people of Greenland wish to be with the US” and are looking for “a more in-depth relationship,” including more military presence.
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“They wish to free themselves from Danish control, and so now it’s a matter of just making that occur. And I believe it’s easy,” he said.
He identified that the U.S. once had a much larger military presence in Greenland but reduced it in recent a long time. Just one everlasting U.S. military outpost, the Pituffik Space Base, stays in Greenland today.
“It’s like … you had a girlfriend in highschool, OK?” Landry said. “And y’all dated. Perhaps you dated into college. It was great. It was an incredible relationship. After which it just fell apart. You didn’t leave on bad terms, you only left. And then you definitely see her like 10 or 15 years later and also you’re like, ‘Oh my God, let’s just get married.’
“And so the Greenlanders are only a bit gun-shy. … They wanna know that if we’re coming back, there’s gonna be some permanence to it and it’s gonna be good for them. And so I believe we’re gonna get it. I actually do.”
A February poll conducted for The Copenhagen Post found that 62 per cent percent of Greenlanders don’t support independence from Denmark, while only five per cent favour closer ties with the U.S.
Roughly 90 per cent of Greenland’s population of about 57,000 persons are Inuit.
In a press release to Global News provided by his office, Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said Landry’s visit had only “reinforced our position.”
“The position in Greenland has not modified,” Nielsen said. “The federal government and the people of Greenland has no desire to be a part of the USA.”
Landry posted on social media after leaving Greenland that he would “proceed to work to deepen ties between our people” and framed a future agreement between Greenland and the U.S. as considered one of “cooperation on security, economic development, and shared strategic interests within the Arctic.”
Nonetheless, in a post on X marking Greenland’s National Day on June 21, Landry equated the vacation’s “celebration of liberty and opportunity” with America’s upcoming 250th anniversary on July 4.
“Perhaps America’s 251st birthday could be celebrated with the addition of it’s [sic] 51st state!” he posted.
Canada — which has faced its own “51st state” rhetoric — has found common cause with Greenland amid Trump’s threats, opening a brand new consulate within the island’s capital Nuuk in February.
In March while visiting Norway with European leaders, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada will proceed to “stand with Denmark and Greenland.”
He has also pointed to the difficulty for example for needed increases to Canada’s military presence within the Arctic, though he stressed during that Oslo press conference that the largest threat to Arctic sovereignty stays Russia.
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