It was on January 19, 2026, that Trump announced his plan on imposing a 10 percent tariff on the United Kingdom and seven other European nations in case they intervene in his decision of acquiring Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark located northeast of Canada.
Greenland has belonged to Demark for hundreds of years, but Trump believes America should own it.
Trump first raised the question of the importance of the States purchasing Greenland during his first term, claiming, “We need Greenland for national security, and that includes Europe. We need it for national security, right now,” NBC reported.
Greenland’s geographic position makes it strategically important to the US ballistic missile defense system, and it is already home to a major US military base.
In December, 2025, Trump appointed Louisiana’s governor Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland, saying he would “lead the charge” in advocating for the territory to become part of the US, according to Sky News.
Now, a former CIA covert intelligence officer claims to know the reason behind Trump’s desire to take over Greenland, even by force.
According to Andrew Bustamante, a former US Air Force officer and CIA operative, the president’s focus on the enormous Arctic island goes well beyond public explanations, and the real reasons may be more obvious than they appear.
“American dominance in the Arctic is critical to American primacy. And that’s the argument for Greenland,” Bustamante said.
“The second argument for Greenland is the importance of American economic independence in the use of not only strategic critical use minerals or rare earth minerals, but also critical minerals.
“So the minerals that are required for economic development, as well as the rare earth minerals that are required for military advancement and weaponisation, both of those exist in Greenland with the benefit of global warming, which is making more and more of Greenland accessible.
“So there is a very real American interest in taking some control over the resources that are in Greenland. However, there is no legal, even by American standards, there’s no legal precedent for us to take it by force. So, what does that mean?”
He continued: “I think there’s a very real chance that the United States strikes an economic deal with the independent parties in Greenland that already want independence.”
Bustamante suggests that rather than triggering a military or diplomatic showdown, Washington may opt for a quieter strategy that leaves Denmark out of the equation.
“So the United States will take control of the parts of Greenland that it wants, and I think it will find a way to do so without undermining NATO.
However, I don’t see an outcome where Denmark is happy. I see an outcome where Greenlanders are happier than, you know, than their parent company or their parent country. But it’s a very difficult, very difficult thing to predict. How fast, in what ways, et cetera. But we can’t, it’s not something that’s just gonna be forgotten.”
Bustamante says any attempt to take Greenland by force would lack legal basis and undermine US NATO commitments, though the confusion it creates may still advance Trump’s agenda.
Vice President JD Vance’s visit of a US military base in Greenland earlier this year raised the possibility that long-term plans are already underway.
“But right now, he has a chance to basically continue to assert his power, strategic ambiguity because of his demonstration of power in Venezuela, so why not milk that for all it’s worth and make people wonder whether or not they should just kowtow to his demands in Greenland?” Bustamante concluded.
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