Why does Trump want Greenland and why is it so important?

By Issy Ronald, CNN

(CNN) — Since the beginning of January, Greenland – the vast, autonomous Arctic territory ruled by Denmark – has catapulted from the sidelines of international affairs to the very center.

As President Donald Trump repeats his calls for the United States to take over the remote island, the prospect of the NATO alliance’s most powerful member annexing territory belonging to another has thrown Washington’s relationship with its European NATO allies into crisis.

When Trump initially voiced such plans in 2019, during his first term, and at the beginning of his second term in 2025, they were mostly dismissed as unserious.

That has changed in recent weeks. In the wake of US forces striking the Venezuelan capital and ousting the country’s president Nicolás Maduro on January 3, Trump’s remarks have rung with renewed force, bolstered by a brazen display of US power.

While European leaders warn that the crisis over Greenland could lead to the demise of the NATO alliance, Trump has escalated his threats, saying Saturday that he will impose a 10% tariff on several European countries unless a deal is reached for the US to purchase the island.

For many Greenlanders themselves, discussion about the US taking over their territory represents “a total show of disrespect,” Greenlandic filmmaker Inuk Silis Høegh told CNN.

Thousands of Greenlanders protested against Trump’s calls to take over Greenland on Saturday, while thousands more joined protests in Denmark.

So why might Trump keep turning his attention to this remote, sparsely populated island – and why is it causing tensions with Europe?

Here’s what you need to know.

What is Greenland like?

Greenland, a resource-rich island of 836,000 square miles (2.16 million square kilometers), is a former Danish colony and now an autonomous territory of Denmark, situated in the Arctic.

It’s the world’s least densely populated country and, due to the limited network of roads, its 56,000 residents travel by boat, helicopter and plane between the island’s towns, which are predominantly scattered along the western coast. The capital Nuuk is emblematic of those towns, featuring brightly-colored houses crowded together between a jagged coastline and inland mountains.

Outside the towns, Greenland is mostly wilderness, with 81% of its land under ice. Nearly 90% of its population is of Inuit origin and its economy has long revolved around fishing.

No individual can own land in Greenland, which “makes the view of our country as real estate ever so more provocative for us,” Høegh said.

Why is it so important strategically?

Three interconnected factors, accentuated by the climate crisis, make Greenland such an important strategic region – its geopolitical position, its natural resources and the potential northern shipping routes around it.

Greenland lies between the US and Europe and astride the so-called GIUK gap – a maritime passage between Greenland, Iceland and the UK that links the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean. This location makes it essential for controlling access to the North Atlantic, for both trade and security.

Its rich natural resources, including oil, gas and rare earth minerals, add to its strategic importance, as China leverages its domination of the rare earth industry to exert pressure on the US. These minerals are crucial to the global economy since they are required to manufacture everything from electric cars and wind turbines to military equipment.

Greenland’s trove of minerals may become more accessible as the climate crisis melts Arctic ice, but actually mining them is likely to prove difficult, given the mountainous terrain, lack of infrastructure and environmental regulations in place.

The melting ice also makes northern shipping routes navigable for more of the year, with implications for both trade and security.

Trump has downplayed the significance of Greenland’s natural resources, telling reporters last month: “We need Greenland for national security, not for minerals.”

But his former national security adviser Mike Waltz suggested in January 2024 that Trump’s focus was on natural resources, telling Fox News that the administration’s focus on Greenland was “about critical minerals” and “natural resources.”

All this means that the US, China and Russia are now tussling over the Arctic region as the climate crisis changes its geography.

More than a quarter of Russia’s territory is in the Arctic so Moscow has always seen the region as vital to its defense. In recent years China has entered the fray, declaring itself to be a “near-Arctic state” in 2018, and pursing the objective of “a polar silk road” for Arctic shipping.

When did Greenland become Trump’s focus again?

A day after US forces snatched Maduro from his home on January 3, Trump repeated that the US needs Greenland “from the standpoint of national security.”

“Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, despite at first saying he didn’t want to talk about it. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

Several Trump administration officials, and Trump himself, have doubled down since then. On Saturday, two weeks after he first turned his attention back to Greenland, Trump signaled another escalation, saying he would impose tariffs on several European countries unless they reach a deal.

“We have subsidized Denmark, and all of the Countries of the European Union, and others, for many years by not charging them Tariffs, or any other forms of remuneration,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “Now, after Centuries, it is time for Denmark to give back — World Peace is at stake!”

What has Trump said before?

Trump inquired about the possibility of buying Greenland during his first term and, despite being told by the island that “Greenland is not for sale,” he revived those calls in December 2024, saying in a social media post: “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”

Vice President JD Vance traveled to the island in March 2025, when he said it was “the policy of the United States” to see changes to the island’s Danish leadership but acknowledged that Greenlanders should decide their future.

Polling in Greenland indicates clear opposition to it becoming part of the US. And three-quarters of Americans say they oppose the US attempting to take control of Greenland, according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS that published Thursday.

What was the US presence there historically?

The US already has a security foothold in Greenland, a legacy of the Cold War when the territory’s proximity to Russia made it an essential monitoring post in the event of a missile attack.

It signed a defense agreement with Denmark in 1951, allowing it to station troops at a military base which is still used, though on a much smaller scale.

Before that, the US tried several times to buy Greenland, most recently in 1946.

The two countries have long maintained a close relationship and “a good foundation for doing business,” according to Christian Keldsen, the CEO of the Greenland Business Association.

“There’s no barriers for American investments into energy, mining, tourism and other things in Greenland,” he told CNN.

What does this mean for NATO?

By stating its designs on the territory of another NATO member and threatening tariffs to force European countries into submission, the Trump administration has struck a blow right at the heart of the 77-year-old alliance.

European leaders, who have long tiptoed around Trump, responded unusually firmly over the weekend, condemning the threat of tariffs and reaffirming their support for Denmark.

“Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral,” Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom all said in a statement Sunday.

Earlier this week, European nations deployed small numbers of military personnel to Greenland to participate in joint exercises with Denmark.

While it is not necessarily unusual for NATO countries to send military assets for exercises in Greenland, the timing represents a significant show of support for Denmark and underscores the tensions between the US and Europe.

Trump, meanwhile, warned in a Truth Social post that the deployment was a “very dangerous situation for the Safety, Security and Survival of our Planet.”

What do Greenlanders think?

Trump’s plans are overwhelmingly unpopular in Greenland. About 5,000 protesters – a sizeable proportion of the territory’s population – turned out in Nuuk on Saturday, waving banners like “Yankee go home” and “Greenland is already great.”

A male protester, who didn’t give his name, said: “We do not accept this kind of aggression,” referring to Trump’s threats to take Greenland.

Trump’s frequent posturing about Greenland strikes right at the heart of the territory’s politics, which have long been shaped by Denmark’s colonial legacy.

It was incorporated into Denmark in 1953 as a tide of decolonization swept the globe following World War II, then granted home rule in 1979. In 2009 it achieved self-government, but its foreign, security, defense and monetary policy are all still controlled by Denmark.

Greenland’s politicians have promised to take steps towards independence, but have not offered a concrete timeline. While not all Greenlanders want independence from Denmark, few want to trade Danish for US leadership.

Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen called the US’s rhetoric “completely unacceptable.”

“When the President of the United States speaks of ‘needing Greenland’ and links us to Venezuela and military intervention, it is not just wrong. It is disrespectful,” he said in a statement.

People in Greenland have largely responded by reasserting their national identity through actions like posting the Greenlandic flag on social media, Høegh said.

“It upsets a lot of people, and I think a lot of it is this lack of respect that we feel coming out of the US administration just going above our heads and trying to buy us.”

Still, for a minority of Greenlanders like Kuno Fencker, a member of parliament for the more pro-US opposition Naleraq party, some of Trump’s comments have been “received quite well.”

“If he says Greenland has the right to self-determination or they could join the United States, it’s a big offer from the United States president,” Fencker told CNN.

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CNN’s Laura Paddison, Lex Harvey, Benjamin Brown, Matthew Chance, Lauren Kent, Kit Maher, Kylie Atwood, Alayna Treene, Kevin Liptak and Betsy Klein contributed reporting.