An inside look at President Trump's campaign to acquire Greenland

In the days before Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration, his son and Charlie Kirk landed a branded 757 in Nuuk, handed out MAGA hats, and hosted a lunch that later turned out to include homeless residents recruited with the promise of a free meal.

The visit set the tone for a longer effort. Kirk later told his audience that young Greenlanders had approached him with rubies “the size of baseballs” that Denmark would not let them mine, a claim that ignored Greenland’s full control over its own resources. A local high-school student who posed for a photo with the visitors later said the group had been “manipulated” once the images appeared online as proof of widespread support.

Early origins inside the first-term White House

The idea surfaced in 2018 when Trump’s friend Ronald Lauder suggested buying the island. National Security Adviser John Bolton was asked for options and began a quiet review. Fiona Hill, then senior director for Europe on the National Security Council, described the process as “clandestine.” Staff researched Arctic security questions tied to melting ice routes and existing U.S. missile-tracking facilities at Thule, yet the discussion stayed off official channels. Trump floated the purchase at Mar-a-Lago dinners; guests responded politely, and the notion reached the press through leaks rather than formal policy papers.