Greenland, the world’s largest island, roughly three times the size of Texas, has become a political focal point of the Trump administration. Denmark’s semiautonomous territory, located in the Arctic Circle, has drawn renewed media attention amid President Donald Trump’s efforts to strengthen U.S. national security interests.
Trump aims to take control of Greenland for its strategic position for national security, as its location is ideal for monitoring the increasing military presence of Russia and China. However, NATO says sovereignty is non-negotiable, The Associated Press reports.
Trump first raised his calls to “buy” Greenland in his first term in 2019. But, the AP reported that a Trump ally noted the President was not serious about the suggestion.
Seven years later, he was, in fact, serious about the initial bid.
On Jan. 4, Trump reinstated his call for the U.S. to take control of Greenland. In response, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said if the U.S. took over Greenland, that would be the end of the NATO alliance.
Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service Professor Geoffrey Dabelko has researched Greenland’s intersection of environment and security issues since 1990.
Dabelko said a U.S.-owned Greenland would be strategic for military and defense purposes.
Although the U.S. already has a military base on Greenland, full control would allow air and naval fluidity in the Arctic. However, Greenland is a delicate land due to its ice sheet and glaciers and must be treated like such, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
The Ohio State University’s Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center is internationally recognized as a premier polar and alpine research center, according to its website. OSU School of Earth Sciences professor and glaciologist Ian Howat has studied the dynamics of glaciers and ice sheets and led multiple science expeditions to Greenland.
Howat said Greenland is the biggest mass of ice in the Northern Hemisphere and more vulnerable to climate change due to its location and “has the capability of melting very quickly.”
“The Greenland Ice Sheet’s size and location make it possible for it to dump huge amounts of fresh water into the north Atlantic ocean, raising global sea levels and altering ocean circulation,” Howat said in an email.
The Trump administration ordered the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement in January 2025. Trump also withdrew from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“Those are both institutions that the U.S. has long been a leading supporter of and consumer of their efforts,” Dabelko said. “They’ve wanted to see those bodies succeed. The U.S. is going in the opposite direction and indicating that climate change is not a priority for its government.”
Building on this, it is also important to consider the approximately 56,500 people who live in Greenland as Trump discusses and plays with the future of their country.
OSU Linguistics Professor Jessica Kantarovich has conducted fieldwork in Greenland, on Kalaallisut, the official language of Greenland, since 2022, and has spent time around Greenlanders.
“(People think) it’s basically a clash between Denmark and the U.S., and that the negotiations are happening between Denmark and the U.S., but Greenland is its own country,” Kantarovich said. “It is a part of Denmark, but it has its own parliament, it has its own representatives.”
Kantarovich revisited a memory from June 2025, when she was in Greenland, when French President Emmanuel Macron came to speak.
“He sent a very clear message that he does not believe in allowing the U.S. to, as he put it, basically bully Denmark and Greenland,” Kantarovich said. “It was a show of solidarity with both Denmark and Greenland, and that was received very positively by the crowd.”
Kantarovich emphasized Greenland has been receiving a lot of attention from world leaders and tourists, whereas in previous years, they ignored Greenland’s presence or had harmful assumptions about Greenlanders.
“The things that they would find upsetting are that people now know who they are, and they’re not living in igloos,” Kantarovich said. “They live in modern societies, especially in Nuuk, it’s a small city, but it has all the comforts and trappings of a city.”
Another harmful misconception of Greenland Kantarovich mentioned is that outsiders think Greenland is Iceland, a misconception Trump himself recently made, according to a video the AP posted.
“I think from the Greenlandic perspective, which is one that I am most familiar with, I think they really want to be treated like equals,” Kantarovich said. “They want to have conversations about what happens next. They want it to be a discussion and negotiation and not a response to a threat.”
