Dave Davies

What does this feel like?

I mean what is Trump saying about all of this?

One of the other things that Trump and others have said is that there are rare earth minerals in Greenland that could be mined and would be a strategic advantage to the United States and a financial advantage for Greenland.

As part of the United States effort to woo support in Greenland, there was a plan to have Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President Vance, visit Nook, the capital of Greenland.

But that didn't happen.

Why not?

What happened?

We need to take another break here.

Let me reintroduce you.

We are speaking with Ben Taub.

He is a staff writer for The New Yorker.

His new article is titled Inside the Ludicrous, Deadly Serious Plan to Take Over Greenland.

We'll continue our conversation after this short break.

This is Fresh Air.

So there were these efforts to get people in Greenland to welcome acquisition by the United States, to build support for that.

Didn't seem to go very well.

And then in January of this year, after the U.S.

military action to take out Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Trump's rhetoric about taking over Greenland really kind of ramped up, didn't it?

I mean, this is a remarkable moment.

I mean, a NATO ally arming to defend itself from the United States because Trump had refused to rule out military action to acquire Greenland.