Ben Taub

And in some sense, that is true in that there are very likely rare earth deposits in Greenland that have valuable minerals in them.

But the challenge economically is that it's not profitable to mine them.

The problem is in the cost of logistics and infrastructure, poor weather and bureaucracy.

It's an incredibly remote Arctic environment, and the costs exceed the value of whatever can be pulled from the ground.

And the truth is that you don't need to annex the island to do business with them.

The Greenlanders have been saying since 2019, when Trump's ambitions first leaked in the

You know, we are not open for annexation, but we are open for business.

And they've been open for investment for a very long time.

And no one wants to invest in it, frankly.

It's just not a profitable investment.

That's the challenge.

So the mining thing doesn't really add up.

The only explanation that has ever come out of Trump's mouth that actually makes sense for his ambitions was when about six months ago, he told the New York Times that he considers it psychologically important to own the territory rather than to merely have military access to it.

And he added that, you know, essentially with respect to limits to his global powers, the only thing is his own morality.

He said, my own mind, it's the only thing that can stop me.

Yeah, so this was one of those amazing moments.

The White House announced that Usha Vance, the vice president's wife, would attend the dog sled race with one of her sons and visit Nuke as a tourist.

And Trump's phrasing of this was, she's a very nice woman and loves the concept of green and so she is going there.

So then a couple of military transport planes from the United States delivered an advanced security team because, you know, this is the second family of the United States.

And the Danes, too, treated this as an important VIP visit that needed security.