Trump Is Right: The US Needs Greenland, Access To Its Resources

When President Donald Trump proposed that the United States purchase Greenland in 2019, the idea was met with ridicule from the media and establishment politicians. The New York Times quoted the Danish prime minister as calling the idea “absurd.”

But history is full of American leaders who saw strategic opportunities before the political class caught up. Trump’s instinct was correct: Greenland is a critical strategic asset that America needs now more than ever.

The History of U.S. Interest in Greenland

Trump was far from the first American leader to recognize Greenland’s strategic importance. Secretary of State William Seward proposed acquiring Greenland and Iceland as early as 1868. During World War II, when Denmark fell to Nazi Germany, the U.S. quickly established military bases on Greenland to prevent its use by the Axis — though Germany did manage to land and operate four weather stations on Greenland. In 1946, President Harry Truman formally offered Denmark $100 million for Greenland, recognizing its value as a Cold War asset.

Today, Greenland’s strategic importance has only increased. As Arctic trade routes become more viable due to changing climate patterns, Greenland sits at the crossroads of emerging maritime corridors between North America, Europe, and Asia.

The Real Prize in Greenland: Rare Earths

Beyond its strategic Arctic location — home to the U.S.’s Pituffik Space Base (formerly the Air Force’s Thule Air Base) — Greenland possesses some of the world’s largest untapped deposits of rare earth elements (REEs). These minerals are essential for modern defense systems, semiconductors, electric vehicles, and artificial intelligence-driven computing. The problem? Right now, China dominates the REE market, refining over 85 percent of the world’s supply and leveraging its near monopoly as a geopolitical weapon.

China has systematically tightened its grip on global critical minerals through state-backed financing, subsidies, and aggressive acquisitions. Beijing has used this leverage before, restricting rare earth exports to Japan in 2010 over a diplomatic dispute. It also limited gallium and germanium exports — fundamental in making computer chips — in 2023, and banned exports of these minerals to the United States in late 2024. If the U.S. remains dependent on China for these materials, we are putting our economy, energy sector, and national security at Beijing’s mercy.

Greenland offers an alternative. The island’s Kvanefjeld deposit alone holds an estimated 111 million metric tons of REE-bearing ore, including neodymium, dysprosium, and terbium — essential for military applications, wind turbines, and electric vehicles. The greater Ilímaussaq Complex holds even more. If the U.S. were to gain direct access to Greenland’s resources, we could reduce China’s economic blackmail and build a resilient, domestic supply chain.

Ominously, Chinese interests are the largest shareholders in the Australian company that owns the Kvanefjeld deposit concession. That China has already made multiple moves to gain influence in Greenland’s mining sector should serve as a wake-up call to Washington.

Texas: The Ideal REE Processing Hub

Greenland’s resources are only half the equation. The U.S. needs to refine and manufacture rare earth materials domestically, rather than sending them to China for processing. Texas is the natural hub for this industry, offering deep-water ports, an energy infrastructure unrivaled in the nation, and an industrial workforce skilled in refining and high-tech manufacturing.

Texas already has a heavy REE processing plant at Round Top, and MP Materials has started producing separated rare earth oxides at its Mountain Pass, California, facility. But much more investment is needed to scale up and compete with China’s industrial capacity. A Greenland-to-Texas rare earth supply chain would create thousands of high-paying jobs while fortifying America’s economic and military independence.

Policy Recommendations: How the U.S. Can Act

To counter China’s dominance and secure a Greenland-to-Texas REE supply chain, Congress and the administration should take decisive action: To start with, the U.S. should fast-track Greenlandic REE development by providing financial and diplomatic incentives for American firms to invest in Greenland’s mining sector. Beyond that, we should explore a path that would see Greenland moving from local autonomy under Danish rule to independence via a plebiscite to an arrangement with the U.S. similar to that enjoyed by the freely associated states in the Pacific such as the Republic of the Marshall Islands or the Republic of Palau.

When it comes to environmental and permitting regulations, the U.S. must accelerate approvals for domestic REE refining and processing to compete with China’s rapid industrial expansion. Finally, the U.S. needs to bolster national stockpiles of critical minerals, and the Department of Defense and Department of Energy should prioritize stockpiling REEs as a national security imperative.

The Time to Act is Now

America’s reliance on China for rare earth elements is a dangerous vulnerability that weakens our economy and national security. Greenland provides a historic opportunity to break free from this dependence and establish a stable, Western-controlled REE supply chain. President Trump saw the opportunity in 2019 and reiterated it his first few days back in the White House. The question is: Will the rest of the Beltway establishment have the foresight and resolve to act before it’s too late?

Greenland isn’t just an Arctic landmass — it’s a North American strategic economic and military asset that America cannot afford to ignore. The time to secure it is now.