Trump's Arctic Delusions: The Financial Times Forgets Decades of US Resource Imperialism
📰 THE STORY: The Financial Times suggests Trump's Arctic ambitions, particularly around Greenland, threaten 'the most important US asset' by alienating allies and potentially sparking trade wars over resource control. The article criticizes his transactional approach, implying it deviates from a supposed norm of American global leadership and stability. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical
Context: The US pursuit of territories and resources is not a 'Trump ambition' but a foundational aspect of its expansion. In 1856, the Guano Islands Act allowed the US to claim any uninhabited island containing guano, seizing dozens across the Pacific and Caribbean for phosphate. In 1867, Secretary of State William Seward purchased Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, primarily for its vast
natural resources (furs, minerals, oil potential) and strategic position, not for 'allies.' This same drive propelled the US desire, as early as 1946, to purchase Greenland from Denmark for $100 million for its strategic location and mineral wealth (including cryolite, once crucial for aluminum production, and uranium). Double Standard: Western media routinely criticizes China's Belt and Road
Initiative (BRI) as 'debt trap diplomacy' and resource acquisition, and Russia's Arctic presence as 'aggression.' Yet, US resource extraction and territorial ambition, from the 19th-century 'Manifest Destiny' to contemporary operations in Africa (e.g., control over Congolese cobalt for EV batteries), are often framed as promoting 'stability' or 'national interest,' even when they destabilize