Trump’s Greenland Push Is About Global Power, Not Resources
The Trump administration says it wants Greenland for its natural resources. But that’s largely fantasy: while the island has critical minerals and fossil fuels, there’s almost no infrastructure to extract them. The real motives are likely geopolitical.
In Greenland, huge capital investment would be required to extract the first truckload of minerals and the first barrel of oil. (Odd Andersen / AFP via Getty Images)
The United States is saber-rattling over Greenland once again. The vast island’s natural resources are back on the agenda, a year after then–US national security advisor Michael Waltz announced: “This is about critical minerals. This is about natural resources.”
Greenland is endowed with both fossil fuels and critical raw materials. It possesses at least twenty-five of the thirty-four raw materials considered critical by the European Union.
The EU’s 2024 Critical Raw Materials Act seeks to improve European supply security of these, and both US President Donald Trump and the EU want to weaken Chinese dominance in the trade. Meanwhile, vast amounts of oil are found offshore across eastern and western Greenland.
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