President Donald Trump has made it clear that he wants the United States to acquire Greenland for national defense purposes. He recognizes that whoever controls the semiautonomous territory of Denmark has a strong position for monitoring military activity in the region, as well as strategic access to the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean.
Trump believes that Russia and China will try to take over the island and has maintained that U.S. control of Greenland is essential for the "Golden Dome" missile defense system.
Without Greenland's own consent and Denmark's agreement, such an acquisition would violate international law and NATO commitments. Now the president is threatening to impose tariffs beginning next month on goods from eight European countries, including Denmark, because of their opposition to his goal.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer argues that the threat of tariffs against allies is "completely wrong" and that a trade war is in no one's interest, but Gary Bauer of the Campaign for Working Families thinks that is a little short-sighted.
"The president's doing this because he knows what the national security threat to the United States is if Greenland is not fortified by people like us that can protect them from the Chinese and the Russians," he summarizes.
He says everything the president is doing is meant to stop Communist China.
"All of this is the most forward-thinking important effort to secure America not just for this year and next year, but for the next 50 years," Bauer asserts. "I just wish people would show a little bit more understanding that the guy knows what he's doing."
The U.S. already has an important space and missile-warning base – the Pituffik Space Base – in Greenland.
