The U.S. has tried to acquire Greenland before – and failed

A young boy walks between residential blocks in Nuuk, Greenland on March 27, 2025. (Leon Neal/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

On the heels of the U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, U.S. President Donald Trump has ramped up his rhetoric around his desire to acquire Greenland, once again raising the prospect of military intervention, sparking fears across Europe and widespread condemnation.

But while American expansionism has regained steam under Trump, the idea of the U.S. controlling the self-governing Danish territory long predates the current president.

Greenland, a vast island of 836,000 square miles, occupies a strategic geopolitical position, sitting between the U.S. and Europe and astride the so-called GIUK gap – a maritime passage between Greenland, Iceland, and the UK that links the Arctic to the Atlantic Ocean. It’s also home to rich deposits of natural resources, including oil, gas and rare earth minerals, making it even more strategically important.

U.S. interest in Greenland dates back to the 19th century, when then-Secretary of State William H. Seward, fresh off the purchase of Alaska from the Russians in 1867, floated the idea of buying Greenland and Iceland from Denmark.

While the sale never materialized, the U.S. continued to eye the world’s largest island at multiple moments throughout history, at one point discussing a possible swap with Denmark for U.S. territory in the Philippines.

In 1946, following World War II, during which the U.S. took over the defence of Greenland, President Harry Truman offered Denmark US$100 million in gold for the island, though Denmark rejected the bid.

Here’s a deeper look back at the history of U.S. interest in Greenland:

1867: The Alaska sale and U.S. Arctic ambitions

In the years following the end of the Civil War, then-President Andrew Johnson’s administration sought to expand U.S. influence in the Pacific.

After successfully purchasing Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million in 1867, Seward, Johnson’s Secretary of State, set his sights on other Arctic territories.

At the behest of Seward, Robert J. Walker, a former treasury secretary and ardent expansionist who helped broker the Alaska deal, recommended that the U.S. add Greenland and Iceland to its inventory, “but especially the latter,” according to a report by the U.S. State Department.

“The reasons are political and commercial,” he wrote in the report, emphasizing Greenland’s vast landscape and mineral wealth.

“The shores of Greenland much more than those of any other country are indented with deep bays, inlets, estuaries, and fiords, some of them possibly extending from the western to the eastern coast, presenting an immense shore line, and furnishing most extensive and protected fishing grounds,” Walker wrote.

“The rocks and geology of Greenland … besides the valuable coal discovered, indicate vast mineral wealth,” he went on.

Acquiring Greenland, he argued, would help the U.S. “command the commerce of the world.”

However, no formal offer to Denmark was made.

1910: A ‘very audacious suggestion’

In 1910, then-U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, Maurice Francis Egan, wrote to the then Assistant Secretary of State with what he called a “very audacious suggestion.” Egan proposed the U.S. give Denmark the Philippine island of Mindanao, then a U.S. territory, in exchange for Greenland and the Danish West Indies.

“Greenland is, as you know, a Danish monopoly,” Egan wrote. “It has never been exploited, although the Norwegians are clever enough to see its possibilities, as they already see what might be done with a lesser opportunity in Iceland.”

The suggestion didn’t go further than that, and with World War I on the horizon, U.S. attention became focused elsewhere.

However, a few years later, the US bought the Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands) from Denmark for $25 million in gold to prevent the islands from coming under German control.

1946: A US$100 million offer

During World War II, after Germany invaded Denmark, the U.S. took up responsibility for Greenland’s defence and established a military presence on the island.

Then in 1946, after decades of flirting with the idea, the U.S. under President Harry Truman made its first formal offer to buy Greenland from Denmark.

The offer was secret at the time and was first made public in 1991 by a Danish newspaper, two decades after the documents were declassified.

In April 1946, U.S. State Department official John Hickerson attended a meeting of the planning and strategy committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and said “practically every member” agreed the U.S. should try to purchase Greenland, the Associated Press reported.

“The committee indicated that money is plentiful now, that Greenland is completely worthless to Denmark (and) that the control of Greenland is indispensable to the safety of the United States,” Hickerson reportedly said in a memo.

The Cold War was beginning, and the U.S. viewed Greenland as essential to its national security.

However, Hickerson said he told the committee he doubted the Danes would want to sell, according to the Associated Press.

In a follow-up memo in May, William C. Trimble, assistant chief of the State Department’s division of northern European affairs, put a price on the island, suggesting the U.S. offer Denmark $100 million in gold.

He said purchase of Greenland would give the United States “valuable bases from which to launch an air counteroffensive over the Arctic area in the event of attack.’’

U.S. officials also discussed swapping oil-rich land in Alaska for parts of Greenland, though Trimble said he thought the Danes would be less open to this idea.

Then-Secretary of State James Byrnes made the formal offer to visiting Danish Foreign Minister Gustav Rasmussen in New York on Dec. 14, 1946, according to a telegram from Byrnes to the U.S. Legation in Copenhagen, the Associated Press reported.

Denmark did not want to sell Greenland. However, the U.S. was permitted to build and operate military bases there. The U.S. had several bases, but has since closed all but one – the Pituffik Space Base, previously called Thule Air Base.

In 1979, Greenland gained home rule in a referendum, giving it greater autonomy from Denmark.

The Trump era

Despite a long history of U.S. interest in Greenland, the Trump administration has reignited efforts for the U.S. to once again try to acquire the island and intensified threats against the Danish territory.

Trump first publicly expressed interest in buying Greenland during his first term in 2019, likening a potential purchase to a “large real estate deal.” But the idea was quickly shut down by Greenlandic and Danish authorities, who insisted the island was not for sale.

Shortly after winning the 2024 election, Trump revived his first-term offer to purchase Greenland, which was again rebuffed. Nearly exactly a year ago, he held a wide-ranging news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in which he did not rule out military action to take control of Greenland – a sentiment echoed in recent days by the White House.

During a speech to a joint session of Congress early last year, Trump lobbed a threat at Greenland: “I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it.”

In a statement Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump has “made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region.”

“The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. Military is always an option at the Commander in Chief’s disposal.”

By Lex Harvey, CNN