Ben Taub

That's right.

They have their own self-government, which has jurisdiction over most domestic matters.

Denmark still maintains jurisdiction over matters that involve national security, defense, the constitutional law, and certain things that sort of are integrated across the kingdom.

But Greenland has the right as part of the 2009 Home Rule Agreement to essentially activate through referendum its own decision to move forward with full independence.

And so they could do that whenever they choose to.

It's a very difficult sort of domestic politics question for Greenland.

I think there are obvious instances of historical injustice which are very fresh in Greenland territory.

which affect people to this day, which the Danes are doing deep reflection on and trying to pursue just pathways forward with the Greenlanders to rectify these past injustices.

And the truth is that prior to Trump's second term, most Greenlandic political parties were in some form or another pro-independence,

what sort of pathway or timeline were among the chief variations between the parties themselves.

But really, Trump's aggression towards Greenland and efforts to overtly break it apart have been essentially the greatest thing that's ever happened to Danish-Greenlandic relations in the past 100 years.

I think Trump's subversive activities and overt aggression towards the incredibly small and vulnerable population of Greenland has driven them to seek protection and unity with Denmark, with the European Union, and with the rest of the NATO alliance as their greatest chance of defending themselves against the United States.

Yes, that's absolutely true.

And essentially, as he put it to me, he spent the weeks following the election pushing his Greenland agenda in conversations with people who were on the transition team until it eventually became one of Trump's central fixations.

And he said, essentially, if you coach an idea and you work it and sell it and help people understand why it makes sense, and ultimately it becomes their idea, not yours, then there's no end to what you can accomplish in DC if you're willing to give other people the credit.

So that's sort of how this seems to have taken off.

Dan's, for his part, has a family connection to Greenland in that his grandfather served as a merchant mariner in the Second World War for the United States and was deployed to Greenland and helped build the Patufik Space Base there, which is the only remaining military base for the United States open still.

So he had never been to Greenland himself until, I believe, last year.

But it was something that he thought about a lot and he had a connection to and that's why he was sort of obsessed with it during the first term and wanted to be the representative for the Treasury on the Greenland PCC.

Correct.