Trump and Greenland (II)

 

Trump does not intend to “buy” GREENLAND as “buy” is used in common usage. What the administration hopes to purchase is DENMARK’s claim over GREENLAND as a matter of public international law.

Such a purchase of a public international law claim would be akin to the U.S. purchase of the LOUISIANA TERRITORY from FRANCE—as negotiated by President Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison, and ALASKA TERRITORY from RUSSIA—as negotiated by President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward. In each case, the U.S. did not purchase the actual land at issue from a foreign power. Rather, in each case, the U.S. payment was consideration for FRANCE’s and RUSSIA’s divesting themselves of their public international law claim over the relevant territory.

In the event of a U.S. purchase of DENMARK’s public international law claim to GREENLAND, private property in GREENLAND would continue to be owned by its current owners and undisturbed. The citizenship or dual citizenship of the inhabitants is (as with LOUISIANA and ALASKA) a matter for negotiation. The status of public property and otherwise unowned interests is also a matter for negotiation.

I do not expect current negotiations to conclude with a “sale,” but stranger things have happened. And if a “sale” were negotiated would it be called Trump’s Folly or Rubio’s Folly?

To be sure, Denmark’s divesting itself of its claim to Greenland (or, even, Denmark’s transferring its claim to to the U.S.) as a matter of public international law does not make Greenland U.S. territory. The foundation of such a U.S. claim over Greenland requires some sort of consent of the governed via a functioning local legislature, referendum, or even a petition ensuring majority consent by the voting public. Furthermore, the integration of such territory into the U.S. (eg, for 14th Amendment purposes) would (I believe) require either a treaty or a statute, preferably the latter. 

 

Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘Trump and Greenland (II),’ New Reform Club (Jan. 8, 2026, 6:27 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2026/01/trump-and-greenland-ii.html>;

See also: Seth Barrett Tillman, ‘A Theory About Trump and Greenland,’ New Reform Club (Jan. 6, 2026, 5:08 AM), <https://reformclub.blogspot.com/2026/01/a-theory-about-trump-and-greenland.html>;