Editorial: Groping for Greenland
By • February 10, 2026 0 167
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson consummated the Louisiana Purchase, adding upwards of 800,000 square miles (no one knew for sure) to the 27-year-old United States of America.
Sixty-four years later, in 1867, Secretary of State William Seward brought off his “folly,” obtaining from czarist Russia what eventually became the state of Alaska — at over 650,000 square miles more than twice the size of the largest state in the contiguous U.S., Texas.
With a population coming in slightly below that of Bowie, Maryland, Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, is roughly the size of Jefferson’s Louisiana (which comprised parts of what are now 15 states, plus slivers of Alberta and Saskatchewan): 836,330 square miles.
Compared with the acquisition of Greenland, winning the Nobel Peace Prize would be like being named Employee of the Month at Wendy’s.
Is that presumptive glory, as has been suggested, what’s behind President Donald Trump’s groping for the world’s largest non-continental island? (Australia is several times larger.)
Or is it the need to repel our international rivals China and Russia, said to be eyeing Greenland-adjacent shipping routes and seeking other advantages of the island’s strategic location.
That rationale appears to willfully disregard the 1951 treaty with Denmark that essentially gave the U.S. carte blanche to locate military bases on Greenland. Besides, if that’s the issue, why is only one of the many legacy U.S. bases operational? (One theory is that, under Denmark’s control, nuclear weaponry would be off the table.)
The most likely explanation for many is that the president covets Greenland’s reserves of fossil fuels, precious metals and so-called rare earths, essential to the manufacture of smartphones, EVs, wind turbines and other advanced technologies. With China leveraging access to its rare earths, there is consensus that more reliable sources should be identified and developed.
But experts note that extracting these resources from Greenland’s frozen landscape would be exceedingly challenging and costly. Plus, there is nothing preventing U.S. investment toward this goal.
In fact, a certain American billionaire is actively investing in Greenland: Estée Lauder’s son Ronald, who will turn 82 on Feb. 26. Unlike his brother Leonard, who died last year at age 92, Ronald is a staunch supporter of Donald, a fellow graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. The Guardian recently reported that it was Ronald Lauder who called 45-47’s attention to Greenland in the first place.
How close are the two aging Quakers? For one thing, President Trump’s current nominee for chair of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, is Lauder’s son-in-law.
Saints preserve us — and Greenland, among other vulnerable geographic entities such as Panama, Ukraine, Gaza, Venezuela, Alberta and Minneapolis — from those who whisper in the president’s intact ear(s).
