An inside look at President Trump's campaign to acquire Greenland
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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This is Fresh Air. I'm Dave Davies. At a White House news conference in April, as President Donald Trump was discussing his displeasure at our European allies over the war in Iran, he said this about his problem with the NATO allies.
You know, 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.
That's President Donald Trump in April. Trump's campaign to acquire the territory of Greenland from Denmark through purchase, threat, negotiation or even military action is one of the stranger episodes of his presidency. And while Trump hasn't spoken publicly about the issue in a while, our guest, New Yorker staff writer Ben Taub says it hasn't gone away. In a new article, he writes that there are ongoing influence operation at Trump's direction to keep the possibility alive. Taub's reporting traces Trump's Greenland project from its inception in 2018 to the present day, a campaign that's yielded some comical moments as Americans sought to woo allies and wield influence in the territory with just 57,000 people.
Taub also reveals some of the private actors who've helped to drive the process, players motivated by financial gain, notoriety, or ideology. Ben Taub has been contributing to The New Yorker since 2015. Among his many journalistic honors, he won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for his work on the lasting effects on former detainees and guards of American abuses in Guantanamo Bay. His new article in The New Yorker is titled Inside the Ludicrous, Deadly Serious Plan to Take Over Greenland. Ben Taub, welcome back to Fresh Air. Thank you very much, Dave.
What prompted President Trump's interest in acquiring Greenland?
I want to begin with a moment just before President Trump was inaugurated in 2025. When his son Donald Trump Jr. and the late Charlie Kirk took a trip to Greenland to try and build some support among locals for this effort of the United States acquisition, how did it go for these guys?
Well, so Charlie Kirk and Don Jr. arrived in Nuuk, Greenland, with very little warning. There was a sort of advanced team that had gone before them carrying MAGA caps to hand out to people. But the locals weren't really sure what was happening until the Trump-branded 757 landed in their airport. And at first, people were very curious, very open to the idea of a high profile visit, I think. But during the course of the day, President Trump himself mentioned the prospect of a military takeover. But the people at the time didn't know that this was happening. They were simply hanging out with friends. Don Jr. and Charlie Kirk. So they arrived in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and were greeted by a solitary Trump supporter, a Greenlander named Jorgen Boasen, who led them down to the harbor and over to Nuuk's most expensive hotel, where they hosted a number of locals for a very expensive lunch.
And it was only after they left that local journalists in Nuuk, working for the Greenlandic publications, found that in fact, among those supporters were a number of homeless people who had been recruited with the promise of a free meal. And the portrayal in sort of both Charlie Kirk's words and those of Don Jr. was that actually this was evidence of a profound support building for an American community. takeover, effectively, framed as these people would like to join the United States. And in the aftermath of their trip, there was a huge surge in propaganda and influencers, pro-Trump influencers arriving in Greenland and trying to sort of get a piece of their own And the strange thing about this propaganda is it wasn't actually directed at persuading Greenlanders that it would be good for them to join the United States.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:12
2
What prompted President Trump's interest in acquiring Greenland?
2:12–4:35
3
How did Trump's Greenland acquisition idea evolve over time?
4:35–13:51
4
What were the reactions of Greenlanders to Trump's visit?
13:51–20:46
5
What influence operations are ongoing regarding Greenland?
20:46–24:16
6
How did Trump's actions affect U.S.-Greenland relations?
24:16–46:52
Speakers
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