The Real Reason Trump is Interested in Greenland
Some say it’s about mineral rights. Others will tell you it’s about national defense. The cynical will say it’s just because Trump wants to build a tower there. Obviously that’s a piece of the equation. And the even more cynical will assert it’s so that the area of the United States ticks up by over 800,000 square miles and exceeds that of both China and Canada, launching the United States to second place in the world. There is no doubt this also informs Trump’s decision making.
But the truth is much darker than all of that. Darker than the arctic night in December. To understand it, we must understand what fundamentally drives Trumpism: white nationalism, nativism, xenophobia, and outright fascism. Trump has spoken out against birthright citizenship, and even now Trump’s cronies are attempting to effect the deportation of a legal permanent resident of the United States, Mahmoud Khalil, who has not been charged with any crime and is currently detained in an ICE facility. But perhaps you were born in the United States, and you think you cannot be deported, so this does not apply to you. But what if Greenland were part of the United States? Would you like to be deported to Greenland? Because that is where this leads.
To Trump, Greenland is an expanse of potential sites for gulags, a vast land where the mineral resources buried under the ice can be extracted by prison labor. Will you enjoy living in a prison in Greenland, digging around in the tundra for lithium? Will you enjoy building roads to military facilities where banks of missiles are stationed, not for strategic defense, but pointed directly at Europe as an act of intimidation? Aimed at nations where people have been openly critical of the Trump regime.
But you’re not a criminal. Surely this does not apply to you. Are you sure about that? Mahmoud Khalil has been charged with no crime, and yet he is presently detained in an ICE facility in Louisiana, far from his home and family in New York City. Say the wrong thing, and you might just find yourself on an icebreaker bound for Qaanaaq, where you will have the pleasure of experiencing frostbite while you dig up minerals to build a cybertruck battery.
Make no mistake: if you publicly disagree with Trump, he wants to deport you. If he can’t deport you because you were born in the US, and if he cannot find a way to strip your birthright citizenship, sending you to a gulag in Greenland to mine minerals for Elon is the next best thing. Because not only does he hate to pay workers, but he hates free speech, especially when it is critical of him.
If you cannot stand up for the rights of Mahmoud Khalil — and all the protestors on campuses everywhere who are calling for justice in Palestine — then dying in a prison north of the Arctic Circle is what awaits you and your descendants if you dare to stand up for yourself when the fascists come for you. And they will come for you.
