President Donald Trump's insistence that the US will acquire Greenland “whether they like it or not” is just the latest chapter in a codependent and often complicated relationship between America and the Arctic's largest island – one that stretches back more than a century but has recently been on the rocks.

On January 14, 2026, US, Danish and Greenlandic officials met at the White House to discuss Trump's intentions. The foreign minister of Denmark later told reporters that while the two sides had a “fundamental disagreement,” they would “continue to talk.” In Congress, Republican Sen.

Mitch McConnell also criticized Trump's threats, saying seizing Greenland would mean “incinerating the hard-won trust of loyal allies in exchange for no meaningful change in US access to the Arctic.”

Although Americans have long pursued policies in Greenland that US leaders considered strategic and economic imperatives, Trump's approach is more agressive than any previous president.

As I recounted in my 2024 book, “When the Ice is Gone,” about Greenland's environmental, military and scientific history, some prior American ideas for Greenland were little more than engineering fantasies, while others reflected unfettered military bravado.

But today's world isn't the same as when the United States last had a significant presence in Greenland, decades ago during the Cold War.

Source:Ndtv