White House budget office staffers are preparing estimates to determine how much it would cost the U.S. government to take over control of Greenland from Denmark as a territory, according to three sources with knowledge of the discussions.
The cost estimates for the island territory include figures on providing services from the U.S. government for Greenland’s 58,000 citizens and determining the amount of revenue that could be brought in through the island’s natural resources, reports The Washington Post Wednesday.
The cost analysis is reportedly being done by staff in the Office of Management and Budget for its director, Russell Vought.
“There is a discussion about what would be the cost-benefit to the United States of America if we were to acquire Greenland,” one official commented. “What would it cost us to maintain Greenland as a United States territory?”
The cost analyses are based on whether Greenland votes and supports the shift in control, the official added.
One option, The Post’s sources said, is to offer a better deal for Greenland than the Danish government provides. Currently, Denmark subsidizes services for the territory at a cost of around $600 million annually.
One official familiar with the plans, discussing them on the condition of anonymity, said the United States would offer “more than Denmark does” to gain control of Greenland.
President Donald Trump has said frequently he wants Greenland as a territory, and told NBC News last weekend that there is a “good possibility” that could happen without military force, but added that he doesn’t “take anything off the table.”
Anna Kelly, deputy White House press secretary, told The Post that Trump believes Greenland is “strategically important” and is “confident Greenlanders would be better served if protected by the United States from modern threats in the Arctic region.”
Denmark, meanwhile, has said it’s open to Washington increasing its presence in Greenland, but not changing its territorial control of the island.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is planning to visit Greenland, beginning Wednesday, for three days, at the invitation of the island’s new government.
Greenland’s leaders, though, have said that the island’s future will be determined by its residents, not Trump’s demands.
“We must listen when others talk about us, but we must not be shaken,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen wrote Sunday on Facebook, two days after taking office in an election where Trump’s plans for Greenland played a key role.
“We must not act out of fear,” Nielsen also wrote. “We must respond with peace, dignity, and unity. And it is through these values that we must clearly and calmly show the American president that Greenland is ours.”
Trump says taking over Greenland as a territory would be a strategic win because of its location and its mineral resources.
The island is between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans and near sea lanes necessary for shipping and military use, including serving as passageways for submarines.
The administration, meanwhile, reportedly hopes to convince Americans that the federal government will recoup the costs of controlling Greenland through taxes and mineral royalties.
But as Greenland’s government has rejected past mining projects, and the mineral deposits lie under ice, the idea that the United States will establish large-scale mining “doesn’t pass the laugh test,” said Alex Jacquez, a senior official under former President Joe Biden.
“This is nothing but cover for Trump’s colonial fantasies and an opportunity for investors connected to him to make a quick buck,” he said.
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