Trump’s Greenland push, briefly explained
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Welcome to The Logoff: Hi readers, this has been a breakneck news week. Here’s one big story that shouldn’t get lost in the shuffle: After Venezuela, President Donald Trump is turning his gaze to Greenland.
What is Trump trying to do? Acquire Greenland, any way he can. For now, it seems like Plan A is to try to buy it, which Denmark says is a nonstarter, or perhaps to pay Greenland’s residents to secede. But the White House said this week that the military is “always an option.”
On Friday, Trump told reporters that “If we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way.”
Is this really something I need to worry about? Unfortunately, yes. As my colleague Josh Keating reports, Trump’s actions in Venezuela make it clear that he’s willing to take drastic steps to facilitate his expansionist vision of US power. European leaders, including Denmark’s own prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, are treating it as a serious threat.
What does Trump actually want Greenland for? Trump has described acquiring Greenland as necessary for national security, including claiming that there are “Russian and Chinese ships all over the place” near the island.
But it’s misleading to suggest the US would need to own the island to shore up security concerns. Not only is Denmark a NATO ally, but the US and Denmark have a separate agreement giving the US significant room to scale up its military presence in Greenland if it wishes.
That leaves another explanation: This is one big vanity project for a president in his last term in office, one who sees himself as a dealmaker and a real estate developer. As Trump put it to the New York Times this week, it’s “psychologically needed for success.”
What’s the big picture? As 2026 gets underway, Trump is acting as though he’s increasingly unchecked. Venezuela is one of the clearest examples so far — and we should take him seriously when he suggests Greenland could be next.
And with that, it’s time to log off…
Congratulations on making it to Friday evening! Before we all log off for the weekend, here’s my colleague Pratik Pawar on one of my favorite stories of the past year: the success of congestion pricing in New York City. It’s a relatively small intervention — a $9 toll for drivers during peak hours — that, one year on, has helped reduce commute times, improved road safety, and benefited public transit. I think that’s worth celebrating.