\n<\/p>\n
For more than 150 years, U.S. officials have been trying, as President Trump puts it, to \u201cget\u201d Greenland.<\/p>\n
The idea came up in the 1860s, then again before and after the world wars. In a way, the timing couldn\u2019t be better than now<\/a>, with Greenlanders re-examining their painful colonial history under Denmark and many itching to break off from Denmark, which still controls some of the island\u2019s affairs.<\/p>\n But President Trump seems to have overplayed his cards \u2014 big time.<\/p>\n His decision, announced this weekend, to send a high-powered U.S. delegation to the island, apparently uninvited, is already backfiring. The administration tried to present it as a friendly trip, saying that Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President JD Vance, would attend a dogsled race this week with one of their sons and that Michael Waltz, the national security adviser, would tour an American military base.<\/p>\n But instead of winning the hearts and minds of Greenland\u2019s 56,000 people, the move, coupled with Mr. Trump\u2019s recent statement that \u201cone way or the other, we\u2019re going to get it,\u201d is pushing Greenland further away.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Over the past 24 hours, the Greenlandic government has dropped its posture of being shy and vague in the face of Mr. Trump\u2019s pushiness. Instead, it blasted him as \u201caggressive\u201d<\/a> and asked Europe for backup. And the planned visit may only strengthen the bonds between Greenland \u2014 an ice-covered land three times the size of Texas \u2014 and Denmark.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will clearly have the opposite effect of what the Americans want,\u201d said Lars Trier Mogensen, a political analyst based in Copenhagen. \u201cThis offensive pushes Greenland further away from the U.S., even though a year ago, all parties in Greenland were looking forward to more business with the Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n His prediction? Greenlanders, he said, will \u201cseek safety in the status quo \u2014 in the Kingdom of Denmark and its alliances.\u201d<\/p>\n Even the dogsled race has reacted coolly. The organizers of the competition \u2014 the Avannaata Qimussersua, essentially the Super Bowl of dogsled races \u2014 said on Sunday of Ms. Vance and her son, \u201cWe did not invite them,\u201d but added that the event was open to the public and \u201cthey may attend as spectators.\u201d<\/p>\n The Greenland drama began during Mr. Trump\u2019s first term. He floated the idea of buying the island<\/a> from Denmark \u2014 with people in his camp pointing to its prime strategic location at the edge of North America and along the Arctic Ocean \u2014 but the plan faded away. As out-of-the-blue as that might have seemed, Mr. Trump wasn\u2019t the first American official to raise it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In 1868, Secretary of State William Seward, fresh off the Alaska purchase, commissioned a study about acquiring Greenland. He was interested in Greenland\u2019s coal, but the plan didn\u2019t go anywhere. American officials resurrected the idea in 1910 and again in 1946, seeing Greenland as a strategically important chunk of territory, but each time Denmark didn\u2019t want to part with it.<\/p>\n What has changed in recent years is Denmark\u2019s grip. In 2009, Denmark granted Greenland limited self-rule, which means the island runs most of its affairs except defense, foreign policy and a few others. A movement for full independence has been gathering steam. This month, a closely watched parliamentary election yielded an awkward and mixed result<\/a>: The first-place party wants to pursue independence slowly while the second-place finisher wants it as soon as possible and includes a prominent pro-Trump member who attended the president\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n This raises another issue: the timing of the visit, while Greenland\u2019s parties are still negotiating over forming the island\u2019s next administration.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s bad timing. We don\u2019t even have a new government yet. They should\u2019ve waited,\u201d said Jens Peter Lange, a dental technician in Ilulissat, a town in the Arctic Circle.<\/p>\n But he said, \u201cIs it disrespectful? Not really. I\u2019d rather say: they lack situational awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n Svend Hardenberg, a mining executive and, more recently, a star of a Danish Netflix series with an entire season set in Greenland, offered a more nuanced \u2014 but no less pointed \u2014 view.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cPeople are reading political intent into something that, in practice, is quite straightforward,\u201d he said. \u201cThis was supposed to be a positive, cultural celebration \u2014 and now it\u2019s been turned into a geopolitical standoff.\u201d<\/p>\n He blamed the press, particularly in Denmark, for \u201cshaping public opinion in a direction that creates mistrust,\u201d adding: \u201cIt\u2019s the Danish narrative \u2014 Denmark defending its own place in the world. That\u2019s what we\u2019re seeing here.\u201d<\/p>\n The visit has been in the works for weeks. J\u00f8rgen Boassen, a Greenlandic bricklayer and outspoken supporter of Mr. Trump, said he helped plan it. Mr. Boassen has been involved in several of the Trump camp\u2019s heavy-handed efforts in Greenland including the visit by Donald Trump Jr. in January that was followed by pro-Trump social media influencers passing out $100 bills. Many Greenlanders weren\u2019t so fond of that, either.<\/p>\n Still, Mr. Boassen said in an interview, \u201cinstead of just rejecting them, we should be cooperating with the Americans. We simply can\u2019t avoid the U.S. as a partner.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s absolutely great that they\u2019re coming,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge promotion for our Greenlandic sled dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n