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ONE would think that everyone in the world knows that nothing is free. Every favour granted, every kindness bestowed has its cost — sometimes the payment is demanded immediately, and at other times, decades later. Europe it appears is only learning the truth of this in these feverish days of the Trump administration. Recently, the Americans carted off Nicolás Maduro and his wife from Caracas to a jailhouse in America. Careful statements came from Europe so as not to anger the American president.
It was the words that came after that were even more unnerving to the watching Europeans. No sooner had images of a handcuffed Maduro appeared on TV screens than the Trump administration officials began to assert that they would take over Greenland next. Post-Maduro, one of the first to make the claim was Stephen Miller — Trump’s Goebbels-esque immigration czar. Then it was Trump himself and also Secretary of State Marco Rubio who said that the US would not militarily take over Greenland but simply buy the country. Controlling Greenland, all three seemed to agree, was necessary for America’s security.
If Venezuela’s takeover had instigated panic attacks in Europe, these overt announcements of US plans brought on a nervous breakdown. The major European countries issued a statement against the claims to Greenland being made across the pond. At the centre of the circle was Denmark, which had laid claim to Greenland 300 years ago and still wants to hold on to it even though Greenlanders themselves do not seem to want it to do so.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has since had increasingly testy exchanges with President Donald Trump. In her words, if the US were to ‘get’ Greenland it would be the end of the international world order.
The cuddly US that indulged Europe’s domestic spending has gone.
The reality is more complex and the source of Danish fretting over every word the US says about Greenland is ironically an international treaty or a series of treaties themselves. The first dates to 1941. At that time, the Danish ambassador who had been cut off from Copenhagen owing to the Nazi takeover of Denmark signed a defence agreement on behalf of Denmark and Greenland with the then US administration.
The motivation behind this was that the Nazis could have used Greenland as a route to North America and thus it made sense for the US to be able to set up military bases there. Another treaty is from 1951 when the US looking to bolster its Cold War defences against the Soviet Union got permission to set up any number of military bases in Greenland if it wanted to.
The US is a military behemoth with a defence budget of over $900 billion. Even as Denmark’s PM dramatically decries US claims on Greenland it seems questionable whether the rest of Europe will forsake the US as a military ally over Greenland. The promise of American military support has enabled Europe to keep up a lifestyle it could not afford had European countries been required to spend gobs of money fending off a threat from the then Soviet Union. The social welfare state, free schools and healthcare for citizens, for instance, would not have been possible if military spending had not been defrayed by Nato.
The cuddly US that never raised a finger at Europe’s indulgent domestic spending is now gone. In its place is a nasty America looking to get paid for past favours. Many in Washington predict that the US plan
to thwart China is to simply get a tighter grip on South and Central America as well as most of the rest of the Western Hemisphere. Greenland, sitting on enormous mineral deposits, is part of America’s new security strategy. This means that even if there is no dramatic or overt capture of Greenland, it is likely that a takeover will take place quietly.
Beyond Venezuela, the US also has its eyes on the area known as the ‘lithium triangle’ constituting Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. The Argentinian prime minister has already sung Trump’s praises. Given Maduro’s fate, his regional counterparts know they better follow suit. America is intent on making sure it has enough oil, precious metals and other components required for technological advancements and it’s not afraid to use its military to make sure it gets just that.
Greenland with its 57,000 inhabitants is likely about to exchange the hegemony of one state for another’s. The Trump administration sees no reason why an icy hinterland of buried treasure should not be theirs. Europe, which had counted on the US remaining a friend forever, is in for a dark and disappointing time ahead. The US wants what it wants and it is Europe’s turn to realise this.
The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.
Published in Dawn, January 10th, 2026
