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Danish king changes royal coat of arms in apparent rebuke of Trump over Greenland row
(www.independent.co.uk)
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this post was submitted on 06 Jan 2025
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Trump made a Truth Social post saying the US should look into buying Greenland. Like essentially everything Trump says it's utter bullshit and not something that could actually happen, and certainly not something Trump of all people could make happen. This is just Denmark subtly giving the finger to Trump which means the effort is wasted as anything more subtle than a baseball bat to the face won't register with Trump.
It's mostly Dead Cat politics. A distraction, nothing more.
If there's any real thought behind it, it's to saturate their opponents with so much bullshit, they'll thin themselves out to defend from it all, while they push through the few things that are important to them.
Honestly, buying Greenland is the most feasible of Trump's territorial expansion proposals. There aren't that many Greenlanders. They number 50,000 or so, and they all have Danish and EU citizenship.
The US could cut a check for $10 million USD to every man, woman, and child in Greenland, and the cost would come to about $500 billion. That's a song for a territory that large and of such long-term significance.
And you wouldn't be actually taking anyone's land. Existing land ownership would be respected. All that would change is that Greeland would be part of the US, not Denmark. And if any Greenland citizens don't want to live in the US, they can retire to Denmark and live well off the $20 million USD a couple of two would get.
The small population of Greenland makes otherwise impractical strategies like this possible. There's so few Greenlanders that we could just cut them each enormous checks in order to buy them all out.
You can't make a place part of another nation just by giving its citizens a lot of money. Greenland is still part of Denmark. Denmark would have to agree to it. So no, that's not feasible.
Obviously you're meant to read between the lines. You're reading too literally. And also, you are wrong about this needing Denmark's blessing.
Greenlandic Independence
Since you want it spelled out, here is the process of what US 'buying' Greenland would look like:
Run a campaign announcing that the US wants to buy Greenland, and they're willing to give each Greenland citizen $10 million in order to do it. Assuming the population could be made agreeable to it, the next steps proceed.
The Greenland parliament announces a referendum declaring full independence from Denmark, a right they already have under existing Danish law and that they can exercise at any time.
The people of Greenland approve the referendum. Greenland gains independence from Denmark.
The new independent nation of Greenland signs a treaty of annexation with the US. One of the terms of that treaty is that every current Greenlandic resident will receive a check for $10 million USD.
If you think "aktually, you can't buy Greenland!!!!" is a valid criticism to this idea, you're just thinking way too literally. You can, in practice, actually buy Greenland if the people there were willing to go for it. You're not literally buying Greenland down at the store. You're making a huge cash payment to each citizen a term in a treaty of annexation.
If the US want to peacefully annex Greenland, they don't have to convince Denmark of anything. Denmark has already given the citizens of Greenland the full right to choose their own fate. All you need to do is to convince the 50,000 or so Greenlanders that being annexed by the US is a good idea. And their numbers are small enough that, unlike ideas of annexing Canadian territory, it would be practical just to write massive checks to every citizen of Greenland.
"Buying Greenland" sounds like an incredibly ridiculous idea. But in terms of potential territorial expansions that Trump has floated, it's actually the most practical by far.
Governments exist by the consent of the governed. Give the governed enough money and they'll consent to anything. So yeah, you can.
Yeah, but if we go that way, they could accept the money, pretend they sold the place, and then just go "sike". Legal by decree of the Danish crown, suckers.
Sure, if you can convince everyone else to go along with that. And also be prepared to defend yourselves when the new owners show up with their army and say they own it now. Good luck defending that, both in war and in international court.
Who "everyone else"?
All other countries respect Danish sovereignty. The international court does not recognise breakaways by referenda anyway. See Catalonia, Scotland and countless other examples.
If anything, an attempted hostile takeover of Denmark would have us find out whether Swedish coastal subs can replicate their exercise results in actual combat and sink a few US carriers.
Also, the official status quo of the consequences of a broad US invasion of Europe is that the French will glass Washington and most major US cities with their nuclear subs, while international trade will be paralysed and the Chinese will become the sole superpower.
Under Danish law Greenland does have the right to unilaterally declare independence. Seriously doubt that Greenland would bend the knee to the US, though, from political reasons (the Greenland right is to the left of the US Overton window) to, well, as a US state they wouldn't have the right to declare independence. Joining Canada would be thinkable, the EU pretty much infinitely more likely.
Everyone else being all the other citizens who were given the money. You might take it and say nah, but not everyone else will.
The Danish state will say nah, not the Greenland people.