{"id":160909,"date":"2026-01-07T09:36:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T16:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=160909"},"modified":"2026-01-07T09:36:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T16:36:02","slug":"national-security-or-financial-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2026\/01\/07\/national-security-or-financial-security.html","title":{"rendered":"National Security? Or Financial Security?"},"content":{"rendered":"

So we keep hearing from the Trump Regime about how the US must take over Greenland because it’s vital for National Security.<\/p>\n

For example …<\/p>\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
Trump\u2019s Greenland threats put transatlantic alliance on death watch<\/div>
\u201cThe Greenland issue does make everything even more complicated,\u201d a senior European diplomat said.<\/div>
www.axios.com\/2026\/01\/07\/greenland-trump-threat-nato-alliance<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

… we get statements like this:<\/p>\n

“President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the U.S., and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region. The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal,” Leavitt said.<\/p>\n

[…] Trump has repeated his position that the U.S. “needs” Greenland, and his claim that the Arctic island is surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships (the Danish official said that contradicts the intelligence assessments of both the U.S. and Denmark).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

They make it sound like China (!) is about to launch a military invasion of Greenland.\u00a0 Not that this sounds at all likely (China’s navy, let alone air force, have no way of projecting power in the North Atlantic, and if Russian ships are swarming around Greenland, that’s a direct threat to the US in and of itself that I would think we would be taking action on).<\/p>\n

That the US already has bases in Greenland<\/em> makes another country invading there even less likely. Especially since pre-existing agreements let the US pretty much do what it wants in building more such bases. We can already make it into a fortress against hypothetical intrusion.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
Buy Greenland? Take It? Why? An Old Pact Already Gives Trump a Free Hand.<\/div>
Analysts say the Cold War agreement allows the president to increase the American military presence almost at will.<\/div>
www.nytimes.com\/2026\/01\/07\/world\/europe\/trump-greenland-denmark-us-defense-pact.html<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

The problem is, as soon as any of the Trump officials finish saying anything about the Chinese\/Russian menace, they keep talking<\/em>,\u00a0 with a focus about how climate change and the reduction of polar ice (which, apparently, is okay to talk about when it comes to taking over Greenland, but not when it comes to fossil fuel policy) will make Northwest Passage-style shipping<\/strong> across the top of the Americas more likely.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
Analysis: Why Trump wants to take Greenland | CNN Politics<\/div>
America\u2019s next conquest might become Trumpland.<\/div>
www.cnn.com\/2026\/01\/07\/politics\/trump-greenland-takeover-empire-venezuela-analysis<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n
<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
Trump says the US \u2018needs\u2019 Greenland. Here are five reasons why<\/div>
The island\u2019s strategic location above the Arctic Circle makes it a focal point in global security and trade debates<\/div>
www.the-independent.com\/news\/world\/europe\/why-does-trump-want-greenland-denmark-b2895347.html<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n
<\/a>
<\/div><\/div>
For Greenland\u2019s Minerals, the Harsh Reality Behind the Glittering Promise<\/div>
There is excitement about the potentially lucrative resources scattered around the island, especially the rare earths. But extreme weather, fired-up environmentalists and other factors have tempered hopes of a bonanza.<\/div>
www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/03\/world\/europe\/greenland-minerals-trump.html<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

Which makes it sound like they really expect (or want us to think they expect) to be having to fight a naval war, within air base reach of the US, which is a bit bonkers.<\/p>\n

More importantly, they go on about the vast mineral wealth<\/strong> of Greenland under the tundra — again, becoming more exposed by climate change (which we still don’t talk about, got it? except when we do …).<\/p>\n

And at some point the discussion shifts from “We have to intervene to stop the Commies Russians & Chinese from taking over a valuable military location” to “Boy, is there a lot of money to be made in Greenland, we should go take it.”<\/p>\n

Which makes it less about “national security” and more about “conquest” and “piracy” and “stealing.” The same tune playing loudly in the background as the Trump folk talk about, yeah, Maduro was an awful guy and a narco-criminal and\u00a0Hey, isn’t it cool how much oil we can now take from Venezuela? Oil that belongs to the people there, except, no, it really belongs to us, because we’re running things.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sure, sure, access to some of those minerals is of “strategic” economic importance.\u00a0 Wouldn’t want China to cut off our supplies of rare earths, etc.\u00a0 And that would be a lot<\/em> more believable if we were talking about protecting Greenland for Greenlanders and simply putting in bases to make sure that the Chinese didn’t invade, and making investments in the country’s infrastructure under a profit-sharing arrangement that ostensibly benefits everyone, including the locals.<\/p>\n

But when we say, “Cool! Mineral wealth for the US!” the whole thing sort of loses any moral high ground. Indeed, if the Chinese and Russians are, in fact, looking to take over the country and exploit it, it doesn’t sound that much different than what we’re going to do, except for the colors on the flag.<\/p>\n

Of course, there are plenty of folk in the Trump Regime who think that’s just fine — that the only moral justification comes at the end of a metaphorical bayonet, and the moral high ground is a good place to bulldoze and build a refinery on<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a world in which you can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else, but we live in a world, in the real world \u2026 that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world that have existed since the beginning of time,\u201d [Stephen] Miller told host Jake Tapper on CNN\u2019s \u201cThe Lead\u201d earlier this week.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Might Makes Right. How very … imperial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It sure sounds like Greenland is in the crosshairs because there’s a lot of money to be made there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"both","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":301,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[748,63,10,349,374,1071],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weather-and-climate-change","category-environment","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-military","category-money-politics","category-trump"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":135702,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/18\/trump-drops-climate-change-national-security-threat.html","url_meta":{"origin":160909,"position":0},"title":"Trump drops climate change as a national security threat","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 18-Dec-17 2:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Indeed, in the Administration's new National Security Strategy, it's \"an anti-growth energy agenda\" that's a threat to the world, and that only American can lead the way out of. 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Kind of weird, don't you think?Anyway, back to the Twitter!Um ...(Crickets chirping.)So ... between both your RealDonaldTrump and POTUS accounts, we have ... three new posts (at least\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Donald-Trump5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Donald-Trump5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Donald-Trump5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":131450,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/07\/the-nbc-commander-in-chief-debate-er-forum.html","url_meta":{"origin":160909,"position":5},"title":"The NBC Commander-in-Chief Debate, er, Forum","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 7-Sep-16 8:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Watched the debate sequential town hall between Clinton and Trump this evening.Clinton came off as defensive -- but that's largely because the first third of the debate was about the Clinton E-Mail Thang. She had clearly made a strategic decision beforehand to not pay attention to time (or moderation) constraints,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160912,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160909\/revisions\/160912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}