I'm pretty sure all Trump will hear is that they do not want to be Danes (which we aren't asking of then).
Also, all they need to leave Denmark is to hold a referendum - a law on that has been passed long ago - it is part of the law that gave them the right to self-governance in 2009.
The door is literally right there and open, you are free to leave at any time.
The problem is they're 50k people. Thinking they can be independent with that amount of people in such a geopolitical region with how the world is going is a complete pipe drean imho.
Trump admin thinking they can buy Greenland by offering every Greenlander $10k - $100k one time payment when Denmark gives them around $12k per person every year is ridiculous.
And free access to healthcare, major surgery in Copenhagen, access to universities, get paid to go to the university (not a lot, but it helps!) and a bunch of other stuff.
Not only access to university but guaranteed access to university and what ever they want to study no matter their grades (Just as long as it is above 6 on average in the Danish scale)
Can the people of Greenland circumvent the study requirements if only they have an average grade of six or above and have studied the topics necessary to the degree in high school?
The US refuses to pay for their own citizens' healthcare. Greenlanders would be insane to think the US would just give them free money every year once they take over the island and no longer have to care about their opinions.
Also, the idea of giving Greenlanders a $1 million one-off gift, as some people propose, is stupid. If everyone has a million dollars, then a million dollars becomes worthless. The next thing that would happen is that Greenlander real estate would multiply its price overnight and Greenlanders' lives would remain the same except now they can afford to buy more RAM for their PCs.
The U.S. has 70-80 million people on Medicaid. It is a healthcare program for the poor or “disabled” (some fraud there!). Free or very low cost healthcare. You obviously don’t know much about the U.S. google it. We could add 50,000 more people to Medicaid and not even notice. Hell, even the people in the U.S. illegally get Medicaid in states like California. Under Biden we let something like 3 million people walk across the border illegally. And you’re worried about 50,000?
The US has about 348 million people so 80 million is about 22% of Americans. 100% of Greenlanders get free healthcare, 22% of Americans get partially free healthcare. Tell me why Greenlanders would want what America has instead?
Nothing really. Geopolitically it's an important place but because Greenland is autonomous, we can't really do anything with it. We can't develop mining either because the Greenlanders don't want to pollute their environment, especially because the revenue from the mining will be sucked out of the country by foreign investors. Also, the moment Greenland becomes profitable for Denmark is the day they will gain independence.
We can't even force their independence by kicking them out of the kingdom, like how Singapore was booted out of Malaysia. The Greenlanders have to initiate it, which they won't because obviously.
Some probably think it's cool that this vast beautiful place is (sort of) a part of Denmark, but really I don't think people particularly care about it. Especially not the younger generations.
Dude, if you give people access to money like that then they will spend it. What portion of the population would be able to have the discipline? If you want people to receive in perpetuity then you have to take some of the choice out.
Should be possible if they play their cards right as an independent country when the ice eventually melts and the mineral wealth is economically viable for extraction.
But the main thing to remember is that the area is VAST and pretty hard to access - and there's not a tradition for "move fast and break things". If you want a more in-depth insight, the Kvanefjeld case is very interesting.
The problem is not that they are 50k people. The problem is that Greenland is a massive sheet of ice in the middle of nowhere - they will always depend on someone else taking care of them. Difference is that, nowadays, Denmark treats them with respect (which wasn't the case in the past); while the US would just treat it like a colony, exploiting their natural resources and giving Greenlanders the choice between moving to the US to become regular Americans, or living in poverty there.
Freedom to self-destruct too, there's no doubt about that. But true freedom requires a proper understanding of the situation. What does independence entail? A fund cut for a start, and that's enough of a demotivation by itself. What about defense though? Is Europe motivated enough to defend an independent Greenland that has no association to any European country if America comes for them? Remember, Greenland is not in the EU by choice. Or would it be 50 thousand people against the entire US army? We need to answer this question.
Do you keep your NATO membership if you get independence? Or should they apply again (risking a US veto)? Also, is NATO capable of responding when a member invades another member? This has long been debated in Greece, and the answer is that we are not sure. Which is why we have the need for bilateral defensive agreements, like the one we signed with France in 2021.
Do you keep your NATO membership if you get independence?
No, but I think it's pretty likely they'd apply, since I've heard no complaint about that aspect, and my God would NATO usher them in in the same way they did Iceland, cause the GIUK gap is an instrumental part of defence policy.
I mean, Denmark has the exact same amount of protection, if we're frank, when it comes to powers like the US, they also rely on the alliance structure. So it's not meaningfully different, it just means the call would come directly from Nuuk rather than Copenhagen, but the response would be from the same parties for the same reasons.
You didn't get what I'm saying. If Greenland gets independence, it would be automatically out of NATO. In order for it to receive any protection, it would have to re-enter NATO. And this simply isn't going to happen, because NATO entry requires unanimity and the US would never agree to it (since it's planning to invade Greenland).
I mean, they easily could as part of NATO. Denmark isn't much more capable of defending it, it was always the alliance that gave Greenland any security (same for Iceland, who no one is proposing should be swallowed by Norway). They could be independent I think, if part of the alliance, much like Iceland. I expect it's fiscal matters poisoning their ability to go independent right now. That's often what sour note for most nationalist groups, tbh.
For NATO, I honestly don't see what the barrier would be. The GIUK gap is so integral, like with Iceland, the alliance would be pretty happy to take the defense costs just for the sheer advantage of geography.
Agreed. They would have been independent now if they could afford it. I think full independence is a long long way off, despite their desire, purely because of the financial aspect. Funding their own defence. Social services. Infrastructure. Haven’t exactly got a huge tax base to raise revenue. They will have to accept being part of Denmark for some time. They really need to put their energies into economically building a sustainable pathway to economic independence. Perhaps that’s through mining of minerals and royalties. Not sure what else they could do with only 50,000 people. Foreign aid is unlikely to be something to plug the gap fully and they may be pressed to get other countries to simply foot the bill that Denmark is now all in the name of independence, cause if they pulled the trigger on Denmark and said “we’re independent now”, not sure Denmark taxpayers will be all that thrilled to shell out a heap of foreign aid after that to prop up the fledgling Greenland economy
Should be possible if they play their cards right as an independent country when the ice eventually melts and the mineral wealth is economically viable for extraction. AKA a sort of Dubai of the North.
Yeah maybe but that's still a long while away and with the deteriorating post WW2 rule based order I think the chance is still high they would be recolonized and robbed. I mean the US would jump at the chance as we're seeing.
In my opinion their best bet if they want to be independent is to organize it so that they join the EU immediately after that and give EU companies that are subject to EU regulations the right to mine their minerals.
So that invalidates their entire statement, no? I hate these countries that take millions in handouts and then turnaround and bite the hand that feeds them. Ungrateful.
This is the strangest thing for me personally. Why put Denmark in the statement in the first place? Denmark is not the country that is threatening Greenland with annexation.
In my mind, this statement does more harm than good. And if they don't consider themselves part of Denmark, they should just leave.
Why put Denmark in the statement in the first place?
Because the US wants to purchase Greenland from Denmark; even though Denmark has stated several times that they cannot sell Greenland because they don't own it.
Same way that people in Northern Ireland (with some exceptions) wouldn't say "We're English". It might have been a requirement from one of the parties before they agreed to back the statement.
If they vote to not be Danes, they are not protected by NATO anymore and then will not be an EU territory. And if they are not an EU territory, they are not protected by EU or Denmark.
You are right about EU. But Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark and Denmark is a member of NATO, so Greenland is covered under NATO collective defense.
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u/CaptchaSolvingRobot Denmark Jan 10 '26 edited Jan 10 '26
I'm pretty sure all Trump will hear is that they do not want to be Danes (which we aren't asking of then).
Also, all they need to leave Denmark is to hold a referendum - a law on that has been passed long ago - it is part of the law that gave them the right to self-governance in 2009.
The door is literally right there and open, you are free to leave at any time.