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I'm Lucy Proctor, and you're listening to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

This is Trump and Greenland, how Maga went Arctic.

Every year, packs of pure-bred Greenland sled dogs gather on the ice in a frenzy of pre-race excitement.

It's all beautifully low-tech.

The dogs are tied together with coloured twine to wooden sleds,

the lone racers riding low to the ground as they tear off into the surrounding whiteness.

There's around 56,000 people on Greenland, mostly have mixed Inuit and European descent,

and a fair number come out to watch the annual championship.

But recently, the race has been troubled by interlopers.

In March 2025, America's second lady,

Ushah Vance, posted a video on her Instagram. I'll be visiting Kowalai, Nuna, Greenland, next weekend.

I'm particularly thrilled to visit during your national dog sled race, which our country is proud to see for this was news to the race organizers, and for that matter, to the Greenlandic government, which hadn't invited her.

That might have been okay in different times, but the backdrop to the visit was a series of increasingly aggressive statements made by President Donald Trump about his desire for the United States to acquire

the semi-autonomous North Atlantic Island from its current owners, Denmark.

This desire has only really hit the news over the past year, but it's an ambition Trump has

harbored for some time.

Essentially, it's a large real estate deal.

Here he is speaking during his first term in office back in 2019.

It's not number one on the burner, I can tell you that.

But by 2025...

And I think we're going to get it.

...