Trump Has a Bonkers New Plan to Win Over Greenland Residents

The White House is floating a novel scheme in its quest to annex Greenland: outright bribery.

U.S. officials are reportedly mulling over the possibility of paying Greenlanders up to $100,000 each in order to acquire the Arctic outpost, according to four insiders that spoke with Reuters Thursday. White House aides were involved in the discussions, which proposed individual payments between $10,000 to $100,000 per islander.

Roughly 57,000 people reside in Greenland, a self-governing territory within the kingdom of Denmark. Local leaders have repeatedly stated their disinterest in joining the 50 states, going so far as completely reshuffling their Parliament in March to prioritize opposing the U.S. after a landslide election win for the island’s pro-independence movement.

If Greenlanders somehow changed their mind after months of intimidation and militaristic threats by the White House, then the payment plan could cost U.S. taxpayers as much as $5.7 billion.

What exactly the White House stands to gain from controlling Greenland isn’t clear, particularly because myriad existing treaties already give the U.S. unfettered access to Greenland as a military base.

Nonetheless, Donald Trump has been fixated on the idea since at least 2019, when he told reporters that the arrangement could be handled as a “large real estate deal.”

In recent weeks, the president’s threats have escalated in fervor and frequency. In an interview with The Atlantic published Sunday—just a day after he ordered U.S. forces to bomb Venezuela, raid Caracas, and abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro—Trump said: “We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense.”

Even White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt couldn’t muster a logical explanation for the president’s Greenland obsession during a press conference Wednesday, vaguely suggesting that the acquisition would be beneficial for national security purposes, citing China and Russia. She did not provide any specific details as to how the U.S. would be able to make better use of the island beyond its current treaty arrangement.