By Parviz Jamshidi
TEHRAN - Donald Trump is causing fear among Europeans by repeatedly threatening that the U.S. is seeking to annex Greenland, a semi-autonomous region of fellow NATO member Denmark, by force if necessary.
In his first term as president, Trump floated his idea of acquiring Greenland, saying in 2019: "Essentially it's a large real estate deal." Now he has become more aggressive, saying it is necessary to own the island for security reasons.
In March, he said the U.S. would "go as far as we have to go" to get control of the territory. The White House also told the BBC on Tuesday that acquiring Greenland was a "national security priority".
Talking to reporters on Sunday, Trump said Greenland is “so strategic now” and “is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.” But, according to the Associated Press, Ulrik Pram Gad, a global security expert from the Danish Institute for International Studies, wrote in a report last year that “there are indeed Russian and Chinese ships in the Arctic, but these vessels are too far away to see from Greenland with or without binoculars.”
What is quite evident is that the covetous president is eying the great island’s untapped rare earth deposits, as the rapid melting of the island’s huge ice sheets and glaciers could open up oil drilling and mining for essential minerals including copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel.
Feeling humiliated and embarrassed, the leaders of the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Denmark said in a statement that "Greenland belongs to its people, and only Denmark and Greenland can decide on matters concerning their relations."
They also called for "upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders".
The idea annexing Greenland is also being promoted by naïve neo-con Republicans, especially after U.S. troops intervened militarily in Venezuela and kidnapped the country’s president Nicolas Maduro in violation of international law and the UN Chater.
A day after the snatching of Maduro, Katie Miller - the wife of one of Trump's senior aides - posted a map on social media of Greenland in the colors of the American flag, alongside the word "SOON". On Monday, her husband, Stephen Miller, said it was "the formal position of the U.S. government that Greenland should be part of the U.S."
Now, Greenlanders feel unprotected and are living in state of fear as the world is being pushed toward the law of jungle. Morgan Angaju, 27, an Inuit living in Ilulissat in the west region of the country, told the BBC it had been "terrifying to listen to the leader of (what he called) the free world laughing at Denmark and Greenland and just talking about us like we're something to claim."
Morgan said, "We are already claimed by the Greenlandic people. Kalaallit Nunaat means the land of the Greenlandic people." He went on to say that he was worried about what happens next - wondering whether Greenland's prime minister may suffer the same fate as Maduro - or even about the U.S. "invading our country".
The U.S. president now eyes the 2.17 million km² island as a tempting prize, revealing once again his disregard for morality, international law, UN conventions, and the sovereignty of other nations.
The pressing question is: what has become of the trans-Atlantic alliance? Has the great ally begun to bully its European partners, treating them as inferiors? Is Trump prepared to sacrifice and humiliate America’s so‑called allies for American interests? Or has the self‑proclaimed leader of the free world embarked on a path of anarchy and lawlessness, as evidenced by the abduction of Maduro, where no distinction remains between friends and foes?
In November 2024, Republican Senator Tom Cotton denounced the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a “kangaroo court” and openly threatened that the United States could resort to military force against it after the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. This alarming rhetoric underscored that the U.S. is veering toward fascism—a trajectory many have long warned against.
Should Europeans now tremble in fear, as their chief ally appears ready to turn against them—just as it has against others?
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