Trump’s Greenland Bid: A History of Colonial 'Negotiations'
Thousands rallied in Copenhagen, chanting 'Hands off Greenland,' responding to former U.S. President Donald Trump's 2019 inquiry about purchasing the self-governing Danish island, which was (surprise!) rejected. Mainstream outlets frame this as a bizarre, unprecedented presidential whim. Conveniently forgotten is America's extensive history of 'negotiating' for territories. From the Louisiana
Purchase of 1803 (from France, not Native Americans who actually lived there) to the Alaska Purchase of 1867 from Russia, the U.S. playbook has always included cash-for-land deals, often with minimal regard for indigenous populations or existing sovereignty. So, the 'threat' wasn't just a former president being eccentric; it was a revival of a long-standing (and often successful) colonial
practice. The outrage feels performative when history is so readily memory-holed. Perhaps the 'world must wake up' not just to Trump's proposals, but to the historical precedent that made such a proposal seem logical to him in the first place?