America has been won through peace and war.
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson enlarged the United States through the Louisiana Purchase.
A few decades later, President James Polk acquired much of the western United States after the Mexican-American War.
President Donald Trump wants to expand the United States further by acquiring Greenland. He has left both peaceful and not-so-peaceful approaches on the table.
In Congress, a less aggressive option—buying Greenland from Denmark—has started to pick up support, even from critics of the administration’s more aggressive posture.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) opposes the Trump administration’s unwillingness to take an invasion of the territory off the table.
Yet, during a recent event with the press, he said it would be a “good purchase.”
“There’d be great benefits to be under our defense umbrella, and also economic benefits to trade,” he said.
He described the Louisiana Purchase and the purchase of Alaska—derided at the time as folly—as precedents for Trump’s effort to make America grow again.
Both were “big, huge successes,” he said.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), an occasional ally of Trump and Republicans, offered a similar perspective.
“Ideally, we purchase it,” Fetterman told reporters on Jan. 7, adding, “It seems like that may not be an option.”
He, too, opposes any talk of invading Greenland.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) told reporters on Jan. 7 that “we’re not looking at doing a military operation” in Greenland.
Acquiring Greenland would benefit the United States, he said—but such an effort would involve both that High North territory and Denmark.
On Jan. 6, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) told reporters that he does not support an annexation of Greenland. Yet he, like others, noted its possible value for the United States, particularly for security against Russia.
“The U.S. has acquired land before,” he observed.
Even some strong critics of Trump’s openness to invasion did not sound inflexibly opposed to a peaceful path to extending America’s Arctic reach.
Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), a former House Majority Leader and co-chair of Congress’s Danish caucus, issued a Jan. 5 statement with co-chair Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah) condemning “sabre-rattling about annexing Greenland” as “needlessly dangerous.”
The congressman told The Epoch Times on Jan. 8 that Denmark has continued to say Greenland is not for sale.
Yet, he did not sound closed off to the idea of further negotiations.
A rejection “doesn’t mean I can’t come back—’Are you sure? Look, we’ll give you $100 billion.’ $100 billion, maybe that’s the right price,” Hoyer said.
—Nathan Worcester
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