Europe Is Trying to Close the Door Between Greenland and the US
President Trump’s special envoy’s first visit to Greenland last week left experts scrambling to understand the true meaning of his statements, cited below, regarding the US’s actual plans for this “poorly managed piece of ice.”
Before picking up his quill pen and formulating his own opinion, the North Observer also strained his accumulated knowledge, intelligence, and scientific intuition to the limit in an attempt to create an acceptable reconstruction of the future using a geopolitical and geostrategic approach.
The impetus for this flow of thought toward truth came from a statement by Special Envoy Jeff Landry, reflected in the title of this article.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, who likened world politics to a game of chess (The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperatives), was right about at least one thing: global politics is dominated by such diverse and opposing forces, and the balance of power between them is so volatile, that the outcome of any geopolitical chess game is almost unpredictable.
In 1997, when Brzezinski’s work, which substantiated the eternal nature of the nascent American global hegemony, was published, nothing foreshadowed the meteoric rise of China, which displaced the United States from first place in GDP by PPP by 2014.
This occurred just 17 years after the book’s publication, which completely and substantially disavowed its main premise—the eternal, or nearly eternal, nature of US hegemony. In 2025, China’s economy, measured in purchasing power parity, exceeded that of the United States by more than a quarter ($41 trillion versus $30 trillion).
Researchers have no doubt that yet another neocolonial repartition of the world is currently underway in the context of a globalized economy and a deglobalized global security system.
The collapse of the European and global security system under post-Soviet US hegemony effectively began with the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia, initiated by the European Union and the US in 1999 through aggression against that state, an unprovoked military attack by NATO countries on a sovereign and democratic nation grappling with complex internal problems.
NATO’s Pandora’s box almost immediately escalated into a series of violent actions aimed at creating chaos and destroying seven Middle Eastern states, with Iraq becoming the first victim, and Iran now joining the list.
True, thanks to the strong will of the nationally minded Iranian authorities and the consolidation of society in the face of unprovoked aggression, the plans of the former world hegemon and its small Middle Eastern accomplice have been thwarted right before our eyes.
Due to its own weakened power and a weaker but far more intelligent adversary with a 5,000-year history of statehood, the American grizzly was unable to kill, dismember, and eat its designated next victim, which would have allowed the US to increase its share of controlled global oil from the current 66% to approximately 80%, thereby gaining a firm grip on the windpipe of the entire world, and China in particular.
There is no doubt that fear is the primary underlying emotion experienced by the US ruling class when making decisions about its actions in the outside world.
Having lost its hegemony, its dominant power in the real (not nominal!) economy, its global scientific and technological superiority (hello, teachers in American public schools!), and possessing a powerful but outdated military, the grizzly bear has only one right choice: to build itself a secure lair and forcibly control its environs, which it considers to include the entire Western Hemisphere, from the Canadian Arctic islands to Tierra del Fuego.
Operating from its protected bastion, further reinforced by two oceans, the United States will be able to safely control many global processes, in the image and likeness of Great Britain in the late 19th century.
Acting according to this logic, the United States MUST INEVITABLY consolidate all its geopolitical assets in the Western Hemisphere: by one means or another subjugate almost all of Canada, perhaps with the exception of the now-nearly independent Quebec, Greenland, and perhaps Iceland. These actions do not necessarily require the outright annexation of these states and territories and do not necessarily imply the use of brute force. When necessary, a cowboy can smile, holding a large Colt in one hand and a thick wad of cash in the other.
From the interview with Trump’s special envoy below, it is clear that the United States considers Greenland its own possession, whose future will not be determined by Europe. The door to Greenland, “closed by Europe” to the US, will, if necessary, be opened with a kick from a soldier’s boot. More likely, however, it will be opened by a donkey laden with a hefty amount of gold. The Federal Reserve will print the necessary amount of dollars, since paper and ink are still plentiful in the country.
There is no doubt about the obvious: Greenland, geopolitically speaking, has indeed become a free asset, only formally assigned to Denmark with its horrific colonial policy towards the Greenland Inuit, who are faced with a very strange choice—whether to continue kissing the hoof of the Danish pig that tortured them (the national animal of Denmark, where there are two pigs for every Dane).
Or, with joy, bolstered by a hefty sum of dollars for each of the 56,000 Greenlanders, surrender themselves into the arms of their close western neighbor, hoping for a life no less prosperous than under the hoof of a Danish pig.
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The social conditions of Greenland’s population, despite substantial subsidies from Denmark, remain extremely poor and more comparable to some developing countries in Africa and Asia, as the North Observer has previously reported. There is no hope for improvement, as Denmark lacks the necessary resources and political will. Nor, incidentally, is there a government, still unformed after the March elections, that could address the situation of its unloved Greenlandic stepchildren.
The first pawn moves have been made in the Greenlandic chess game, in which the prize is 2 million square kilometers and a large sector of the Arctic Ocean. The arrival of the special envoy to Greenland and the opening of the US consulate in Nuuk signify that the first chess pieces have made their moves—apparently the rooks.
The game will soon enter the middlegame, and its outcome is quite predictable, as mentioned above. It doesn’t matter who is leading the game on the American side, Republicans or Democrats—the goal is the same: the US must survive in the new post-American world. The only difference between the two parties is in the distribution of violence and money, hard and soft power.
Donald Trump’s Special Envoy in Greenland
Amidst great media hype, Donald Trump’s special envoy, Jeff Landry, arrived in Katuaq on Tuesday, where the Future Greenland business conference was taking place.
The US president’s extended arm in Greenland had not been invited, he had simply registered for the conference as a completely ordinary private citizen.
And now he had finally shown up to attend.
In front of the cultural center, he was quickly surrounded by questioning journalists.
Along the way, Jeff Landry, who is currently the governor of the state of Louisiana, said that the US president had done Greenland a great favor by putting the island on the map.
When he entered, he moved through the crowd wearing a dark gray suit, leather boots, and a steel-gold Rolex watch, while the participants’ eyes were directed at him.
Here, KNR caught up with him for a longer interview about his stay.
KNR asked Jeff Landry whether the goal is still to take control of Greenland, which both he and US President Donald Trump have previously expressed.
“The person who can best answer that question is the US president. But I think first and foremost, what the US president wants is to ensure that the Western Hemisphere is safe and that the countries in the Western Hemisphere share in all the opportunities that the US—the world’s largest economy—has to offer,” says Jeff Landry, who is in Greenland for the first time.
Still, he points out that “there is no doubt that the president’s interest in creating opportunities for the people of Greenland is at a higher level than anywhere else in the world.”
Don’t Miss Out on Opportunities
On Monday, Jeff Landry, together with the US Ambassador to Denmark, Ken Howery, met with the Chairman of the Greenlandic Government, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, and the Greenlandic Minister of Foreign Affairs, Múte B. Egede.
In addition, he visited the former mayor and parliamentarian Nikolaj Heinrich twice during his stay and met with business leaders to discuss how the US can financially help Greenland.
According to Jeff Landry, the meeting with the top government went brilliantly.
He says that he left the meeting with the feeling that no one was interested in Greenland until Donald Trump started talking about the country—neither from the American nor European side.
“He (Jens-Frederik Nielsen, ed.) said that we (Greenland, ed.) knocked on the door, but the door was never opened. And then I said: ‘Try to listen, that’s why I’m here.’”
“I’m here to say: hey, the door is open. Let’s build a relationship,” says Trump’s special envoy.
After the meeting, the chairman of the Greenlandic Parliament stated that there was someone on the American side of the table who was unaware of Greenland.
Whether Jens-Frederik Nielsen was referring to Jeff Landry or Ken Howery is unclear.
Opposition from Europe
Do you think Greenland is a “badly managed piece of ice,” as President Donald Trump has said?
“I can tell you that what I will take back and report to the president is that we have had an opportunity in the past that presidents before him have squandered. Trump is not a failure like them. He loves to win. He loves to make deals,” he says, and continues:
“He recognizes that Greenland is extremely important for national security—not only for the United States, but also for the Western Hemisphere, and of course also for Greenland’s own security.”
What do you think about the fear and anger that your visit and the president’s rhetoric have provoked among Greenlanders?
“There was this huge backlash, which frankly sounded more like it came from Europe than from Greenland. Remember, I was invited to a dog sled race,” he says, referring to his invitation in January, which was subsequently withdrawn by the organizers.
According to the special envoy, it seems as if Europe is trying to close the door between Greenland and the US.
“I think it could be a great opportunity for coexistence between Europe, Greenland, and the US with the US in the driver’s seat. It is not foreign territory, because the US was at the forefront of the reconstruction of Europe after the Second World War. It is not that Europe alone built the Europe we see today.”
But would that require Greenland to be somehow incorporated into the US?
“I don’t know. First of all, you have to have an open dialogue, and you have to have a conversation.”
Jeff Landry adds that these are probably the kinds of conversations that are being had in the working group between Greenland, Denmark, and the US.
The working group was established in January of this year after the tense meeting between the foreign ministers of the three countries and US Vice President J. D. Vance.
The high-level working group aims to find a solution to the ongoing conflict.
“For me, it’s about ensuring that we don’t miss opportunities that we clearly missed under previous presidents,” says Jeff Landry.
Regarding Sermitsiaq, Jeff Landry says that the US only has one red line, and that is self-interest. The statement came when he was asked whether he respects Greenland’s claim to sovereignty.
“There is only one line for us. It is red, white, and blue,” he told the newspaper.
Resistance Is Based on Misunderstandings
There is a high-level working group, and then there is you—Trump’s special envoy. What is your role and where do you fit into the whole equation surrounding the situation between Greenland and the US?
“I see my project as economic opportunities—of course as governor of Louisiana,” says Jeff Landry, and continues:
“It is economic opportunities—not government benefits—that lift people from dependence to independence.”
On Wednesday evening, the special envoy traveled back to Louisiana.
He says that he is with a positive impression of Greenland and the Greenlandic people.
But he is annoyed that, according to him, all American administrations have not done more for Greenland over the years, even though all high-ranking politicians from the United States have visited the country.
“People deserve the opportunity to have a strong relationship with the United States. I do not think that any other country really has the opportunity to lift people from dependence on the state to independence and self-reliance.”
When Jeff Landry looks at Greenland, he sees a country rich in opportunities and with a population that has welcomed him nicely and been kind to him.
“I don’t know where the resistance comes from,” he says of the resistance to his visit, which included angry shouts from the local population and rejection of photos.
“I think the resistance or unrest that has been built up in the country is based on misunderstandings or stories created by misinformation on the Internet or simply bad journalism,” says Jeff Landry.
After the interview with KNR, Jeff Landry and his entourage hurried on.
On Thursday, the United States inaugurated its new consulate in the middle of Nuuk. The chairman of the Greenlandic government, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, chose not to attend.
Shortly afterwards, hundreds of protesters appeared in front of the new consulate building to express their opposition to the Americans’ persistent pressure on Greenland, especially in the wake of Jeff Landry’s sensational visit.
Source: KNR (in Danish)
