Trump's desire for Greenland rooted in Manifest Destiny
Trump still wants Greenland, but while the cardinal motives involve geopolitical interests in the Arctic, and rare Earth minerals for U.S. defense and tech corporations, the deeper and reverberated substrate playing out is one that the mostly Indigenous Greenlandic population has dealt with and resisted for centuries–colonialism–and they don’t plan on repeating the pattern.
In fact, Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen asserted following Trump’s initial threats that the island is not for sale. In March 2025, the Greenlandic political parties converged for a joint message denouncing annexation wishes advanced by the U.S. President. “Greenland is Ours,” the PM was quoted saying.
Qupanuk Olsen, the famous content creator behind Qs Greenland, an educational project sharing the culture, history, and life of Greenland for an extensive audience, not only opposes annexation, but supports independence for the autonomous state. She affirms that the U.S. threats against the island could fashion a catalyst for a bold independence movement, igniting discourse among residents about the political conditions and future for Greenlanders.
On the surface, Trump’s desire to take over the nation is nationalistic, extreme, and a mode of rhetoric that is actively alienating European allies. Under the skin, however, the political wish is rooted in a long history of racism and colonialism.
Indigenous communities have lived in Greenland or Kalaallit Nunaat for 4500 years. While Norse explorers colonized the island in the 10th century, 1721 marked the year of the establishment of Danish colonization of the region. For centuries, colonizers would suppress Indigenous religion and culture, converting most to Lutheran Christianity.
The experience with broader colonialism by Greenlandic people has contributed to one of the world’s worst suicide rates in modern history. In a study released by the International Journal of Circumpolar Health, extreme suicide rates on the island were connected to colonialism, “rapid modernisation processes, intergenerational trauma, and grief.” In response to this epidemic, there has been a national effort toward mental health treatment and support.
About 90% of Greenlanders identify as Inuit today. While Greenlandic people move in the direction of Native reclamation and move against colonial political ontology, the threats by Trump of taking over their island are a slap in the face, and mirror the very dark history of colonialism that Greenlanders want to transcend.
When Trump calls for gaining control over Greenland, potentially with force, he is seeking to repeat the anti-Indigenous colonialism of not only Greenland’s history, also that of Native Americans in U.S.-occupied lands. To take over Greenland would be land theft. To take over Greenland would be a transgression of Indigenous rights. To take over Greenland would be Manifest Destiny all over again.
The Inuit island nation deserves self-determination and the preservation–and reclamation–of its ways of life. From the environmental protections in place, to the intentionally gradual expansion of industrial mining, to the community ownership of land, Greenlandic life would be altered profoundly under U.S. rule, and in my view, would change matters for the worse. There is no private land ownership on the island; all land is owned by the public. Not only would U.S. rule impose another gradation of political colonialism, but impose capitalist land ownership on the communities as well, removing a traditional form of property ownership.
In February 2025, Modern Diplomacy referred to Trump's Greenland wish as Manifest Destiny, and National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes has contended that:
“President Trump believes Greenland is a strategically important location, and is confident Greenlanders would be better served protected by the United States from modern threats in the Arctic region."
Historically, land theft from the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island involved forced removals via pretextual dispossession, or the dispossession of Native land under the pretext of protection and security. Former U.S. President James K. Polk consolidated this sort of territorial expansion, and Trump similarly desires an expansionist era. In the same vein, the Monroe Doctrine, which asserts that the entire Western hemisphere is the domain of the United States, is invoked by Trump when he remarks about taking control of Greenland, Canada, and the Panama Canal. When the Trump administration tells you who they are, believe them.
In defense of Indigenous communities, political self-determination, and the environment, we must oppose the U.S. acquisition of Greenland, because Inuit Greenlanders don’t deserve to undergo a repeat of the Manifest Destiny doctrine employed throughout U.S. history to justify violent land theft.
Greenland is for the Greenlanders, and no one else.
