‘Who’s gonna tell him?’: Trump’s logic on Greenland essentially means Americans cannot claim the land of the U.S.
Let's begin at home.
On Friday, President Trump revived his long-running obsession with acquiring Greenland. But he offered a justification so sweeping that it undercuts America’s claim to its own land.
During his Jan. 9 meeting with oil and gas executives at the White House, Trump also briefly addressed the ongoing Greenland debate. “They’ve been very nice to me. I’m a big fan,” he claimed while fielding press questions after the meeting. Then, he gave the logic he believed would justify his plans for occupying Greenland.
“The fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean that they own the land.”
Trump probably thought it sounded assertive. Instead, it accidentally dismantled the historical logic behind the foundation of the United States itself. Because if arriving by boat centuries ago does not establish ownership, then America’s own claim to the land it occupies collapses.
By Trump’s logic, America doesn’t belong to Americans either
Trump’s logic makes Greenland’s sovereignty ahistorical and transactional. Continuity, consent, and the people who actually built and live in Greenland didn’t enter Trump’s equation. But that logic does not stop at Greenland. If we go by that, all land ownership and international borders should stop existing today.
Europeans who arrived in North America on boats should not magically get ownership either. Christopher Columbus also arrived in the United States of America on a boat. So did the English, the Spanish, the French, the Dutch. If boats invalidate claims, then the United States itself is standing on borrowed logic.
Trump somehow managed to restate the central critique of settler colonialism, but he didn’t realize that it applies to his country, too. While his brain couldn’t quite comprehend what he just suggested, social media didn’t miss the implication. One user on X wrote, “By that logic, Americans have no claim to the USA whatsoever. Return it to the natives.” Another put it more sarcastically, writing, “Native Americans would like a word or two.”
Trump explicitly claimed he plans to occupy Greenland
Trump’s Greenland comments weren’t just about history. They were also about occupation and control. When asked why he wants to “own” Greenland when the U.S. already maintains a military presence there, Trump was explicit. “Because when we own it, we defend it,” he said. “You don’t defend leases the same way. You have to own it. Countries need ownership, and you defend ownership.”
His words then escalated from theory to warning. He claimed Russian and Chinese naval vessels and submarines were operating near Greenland and suggested that without U.S. ownership, those powers would “occupy” the island. “We are not going to have Russia or China occupy Greenland,” he said, adding that the United States would act “either the nice way or the more difficult way.”
And Trump went even further. “We are going to do something with Greenland, whether they like it or not,” he said. This dispenses the idea that the people of Greenland, who live there, build there, vote there, and govern themselves, have any say in the matter.
But Greenland is not an empty map square. It has citizens, homes, infrastructure, and a government. Its people didn’t just “have a boat land there.” They live there now, and they have sovereignty. Yet, even if we were to believe in Trump’s logic, one X user accurately asked, “How does it mean America owns the land?” Across all responses, “Who’s gonna tell him?” might be the gentlest one available. But someone really needs to tell Trump what he’s suggesting.
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