Trump’s plan to take over Greenland
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 2 April 2025
⏱️ 21 minutes
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Summary
President Donald Trump has wanted to make Greenland a part of the United States since his first term, citing its strategic location and valuable mineral resources. Now, the White House is drawing up scenarios for how the U.S. could take control of Greenland from Denmark, which currently governs the island. But those in Greenland and Denmark have been alarmed by the Trump administration’s strategy and rhetoric.
White House reporter Michael Birnbaum reports on this effort and the challenges that the administration is facing as it tries to make this plan into a reality.
Today’s show was produced by Ariel Plotnick and Sabby Robinson. It was edited by Reena Flores and Peter Bresnan and mixed by Sean Carter.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | President Donald Trump likes to make big claims and bold promises. |
| 0:06.0 | A lot of the time, they don't come true. |
| 0:08.5 | But earlier this week, our Washington Post colleagues found out that the Trump administration is actually laying the groundwork |
| 0:14.0 | for one of Trump's more surprising ideas. |
| 0:17.1 | So we heard that the number-crunching part of the White House has been running through scenarios to try to understand what it would cost the United States if it took over Greenland from Denmark and operated it as a U.S. territory. |
| 0:38.3 | That's White House reporter Michael Burnbaum. |
| 0:41.5 | Donald Trump has talked about obtaining Greenland for the United States for a long time. |
| 0:46.5 | It's something that came up in the first term as well. |
| 0:49.3 | For a long time, it felt like a bit of a joke. |
| 0:51.4 | So what we're seeing is the transformation of an idea |
| 0:57.0 | into something that has numbers attached to it and that could, ideally, from the White |
| 1:02.5 | House perspective, actually be executed. |
| 1:08.3 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports. |
| 1:12.1 | I'm Kolby Ekowitz. |
| 1:13.5 | It's Wednesday, April 2nd. |
| 1:15.8 | Currently, Greenland is a part of Denmark. |
| 1:18.2 | Today, we'll talk about Trump's plans to make the island part of the United States. |
| 1:31.2 | I guess the big question, Michael, is why? |
| 1:36.3 | Why does Trump want the U.S. to take over Greenland, of all places? |
| 1:46.1 | So President Trump has been interested in Greenland, which is an autonomous island territory that's part of the kingdom of Denmark. |
| 1:50.8 | He's been interested in it since his first term. He's been talking about it as something that he wants the U.S. to possess. He says it has minerals. He says that it is a strategically |
| 1:57.5 | important island territory, that China and Russia are interested in it |
... |
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