Trump's Persistent Campaign to Acquire Greenland Continues Behind the Scenes

President Donald Trump's campaign to acquire Greenland from Denmark has remained active despite fading from public headlines, according to recent reporting by New Yorker staff writer Ben Taub. The effort, which began in 2018, has involved various strategies including purchase offers, military threats, and coordinated influence operations aimed at Greenland's population of 57,000 residents.

Trump's ambitions for Greenland have occasionally surfaced publicly. In April 2026, during a White House news conference discussing tensions with European NATO allies over the Iran war, Trump remarked, "it all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us. And I said, bye-bye." However, behind-the-scenes operations have continued steadily, with multiple private actors—motivated by financial gain, notoriety, or ideology—driving the effort forward.

Notable among recent activities was a high-profile visit to Greenland's capital, Nuuk, by Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. and conservative commentator Charlie Kirk in the period just before Trump's 2025 inauguration. The visit, preceded by an advance team distributing MAGA merchandise, featured an expensive lunch at Nuuk's most upscale hotel where organizers recruited homeless locals with promises of free meals—later portrayed by Kirk and Trump Jr. as evidence of widespread support for American acquisition. Local Greenlandic journalists exposed the misleading nature of these claims, noting that genuine public enthusiasm was limited.

Following the visit, a wave of pro-Trump influencers descended on Greenland in an attempt to amplify the acquisition narrative through propaganda and social media campaigns. These coordinated influence operations reflect Trump's sustained commitment to keeping the Greenland acquisition concept politically viable, even as it generates skepticism and ridicule among both Greenlandic residents and international observers.

Ben Taub's investigative reporting has documented this unusual campaign's evolution from its 2018 origins to present-day operations, revealing both the comic and the serious dimensions of what he characterizes as a "ludicrous, deadly serious" undertaking that has reportedly strained relationships with American allies.