Headline Roundup • January 6th, 2026
Why Does Trump 'Need' Greenland? How Could He Get It?
World,Foreign Affairs,Greenland,Defense And Security,NATO,National Security,Minerals,Denmark,Trump Agenda
Summary from the AllSides News Team
President Donald Trump reignited his objective of acquiring Greenland for the US on Sunday. What might the US "need" the region for, and could Trump realize his vision?
Key Quote: "Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place," Trump said of the self-governing Danish territory and NATO ally. "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it."
National Security: "Greenland is not desirable real estate by any typical metric, but it has outsized strategic significance," wrote Rich Lowry (Right bias) for New York Post (Lean Right). Lowry noted that the territory "sits on a key naval corridor between the Atlantic and the Arctic." Greenland's location northeast of Canada and between the US, Europe and Russia is "strategic for both economic and defense purposes – especially as melting sea ice has opened up new shipping routes through the Arctic," according to CBS News (Lean Left) analysts. An Associated Press (Left) analyst noted that "more than two-thirds of its territory [lies] within the Arctic Circle," which has been a major point of North American defense since World War II. AP also highlighted Russian President Vladimir Putin's assertion that he will strengthen Russia's military forces in the Arctic.
Mineral Resources: "Greenland may have significant reserves of up to 31 different minerals, including lithium and graphite, according to a 2023 report assessing the island's resources," wrote the CBS analysts. "Both minerals are needed to produce batteries for electric vehicles and a wide array of other technologies." Lowry highlighted the territory as having "prodigious reserves of critical minerals, and perhaps fossil fuels, too." AP's analysis said the resources have "attracted the interest of the U.S. and other Western powers as they try to ease China's dominance of the market for these critical minerals."
How Could He Get It?: CBS cited a poll that showed "85% of Greenlanders did not want to be part of the United States." However, Lowry argued that negotiations with Trump should be in Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's interests. "A lightly armed contingent of American crossing guards could probably take [Greenland] over in a couple of days," he wrote. "The challenge, though, is political and diplomatic, not military." He asserted that the US "can almost certainly get whatever [it needs] from Greenland without violating a friendly country's sovereignty" and "courting a diplomatic crisis" with its NATO allies. Appearing to opt for a peaceful solution, Lowry said, "Trump should realize that making everyone in a friendly nation hate him doesn't help his cause… Even the unsentimental, results-oriented foreign policy of Donald Trump needs to distinguish between friend and foe."
RELATED: Would a Greenland Acquisition Make Sense? | AllSides
Written by the AllSides staff (of humans). Learn more. Support our mission. Suggest an improvement to this summary.
Featured Coverage of this Story
China, Russia, and Iran had to be alarmed by the display of US power in the Venezuela incursion — but so did Denmark, a NATO ally of the United States.
In the aftermath of the snatch-and-grab of Nicholás Maduro, President Donald Trump spoke to The Atlantic about his other foreign-policy priorities: "We do need Greenland, absolutely."
It might have been easy not too long ago to dismiss this as bluster.
Not anymore — not after the successful strikes on the Iran nuclear program and the Venezuela operation...
Jim Watson/Pool/Getty
Why does the United States want control of Greenland? President Trump has made it clear that he thinks the U.S. needs to control the Arctic island to ensure the security of America and its NATO allies, a point those allies — and Greenland — vehemently disagree with.
But there's more at play here, including a valuable shipping route and access to mineral resources.
Here's what interests the U.S. about the semi-autonomous Danish territory...
Location, location, location: Greenland's position above the Arctic Circle makes the world's largest island a key part of security strategy. But for whom?
Increasing international tensions, global warming and the changing world economy have put Greenland at the heart of the debate over global trade and security, and U.S. President Donald Trump wants to make sure his country controls this mineral-rich island that guards the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America.
Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, a longtime U.S. ally that has rejected Trump's overtures. Greenland's...
.jpg)
