Why Does Trump Want Greenland? Think Like A New York Real Estate Mogul

Trump doesn’t want Greenland because of any grand global strategy. He wants it because it’s the last large piece of territory available on the global monopoly board.

Trump thinks like a New York real estate

mogul. Which real estate asset can he covet? Everything else is taken. Countries are small now. Greenland is visually undefeated.

On a map, it looks huge. Bigger than France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain. Put together. It would be the largest territory the United States ever added, if America were to acquire it.

“I don’t rent. I own.” This is crucial. Trump’s worldview is binary. The smart people own stuff. Only the losers rent stuff, or you’re a loser renting from someone smarter. No one can evict you if you have your name on it.

America leases bases. America partners with allies. That sounds weak.

Trump doesn’t do alliances; he does closing of deals. Why coordinate with Denmark when you can buy the whole thing and put your name on it? Greenland becomes Trumpland.

To Trump, Greenland isn’t a vast flotilla of moving ice. It’s underperforming real estate.

To policy experts, Greenland is melting ice, climate science, indigenous communities, and geopolitics.

To Trump? It’s just empty land. And in Trump’s worldview, empty land means bad real estate management.

In Trump’s mind, Greenland is just Miami with a lot of snow. As Europe grapples how to respond to Trump’s 10 per cent tariffs, he’s already imagining Trump Arctic Resorts, luxury igloos — very warm, very premium and the Northernmost Golf Course in the World. If climate change is real, which he denies, then it only means Greenland is operational for more days in the year than before.

Trump’s a New York real estate guy, and the idea of grabbing that much land seems to be his only guiding force: THE MOST LAND EVER. Not China, not Russia. America becomes the world’s largest land bank.

Trump understands optics better than spreadsheets. And nothing says power like owning more land than anyone else. The most powerful land shark is the guy who owns the most amount of real estate. He doesn’t want Greenland for what it does. He wants it for what it signals to the rest of the world. Maps with America stretching all the way into the Arctic. Red, white, and blue touching the top of the world.

It’s clear that Trump is bent on territorial annexation in a way that past presidents were not. Certainly not in the post second world war global order. To understand Trump, you have to go all the way back to the 18th and 19th century. Trump’s annexationist ambitions echo American Presidents of that era – Thomas Jefferson, James Polk and Andrew Johnson. Or his childhood hero, William McKinley. Trump’s real estate wet dream climaxes when Trump Tower is built in Nuuk – on top of the world – or his face is carved on Mount Rushmore.