{"id":422561,"date":"2026-01-22T09:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T09:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/422561\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T09:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T09:04:11","slug":"trump-says-rare-earths-are-part-of-his-greenland-deal-its-completely-bonkers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/422561\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says rare earths are part of his Greenland deal. It\u2019s \u2018completely bonkers\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he reached a framework for a deal<\/a> with NATO over the future of Greenland that will include rights to rare-earth minerals.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey\u2019re going to be involved in mineral rights, and so are we,\u201d Trump said about NATO and the United States in an interview with CNBC after the initial announcement on Truth Social<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n He didn\u2019t specify any preliminary terms. But Greenland\u2019s untapped mineral wealth has helped land the island at the top of Trump\u2019s empire-building wish list.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump officials view Greenland\u2019s<\/a> underground riches as a way to loosen China\u2019s stranglehold over the rare-earth metals<\/a> that are critical for everything from fighter jets and lasers to electric vehicles and MRI scanners.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump has downplayed Greenland\u2019s natural resources, including in his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, when he said acquiring rare-earth minerals wasn\u2019t the reason America needed the territory.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cEveryone talks about the minerals. There\u2019s so many,\u201d Trump said. \u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as rare earth. There\u2019s rare processing. But there\u2019s so much rare earth. And to get to this rare earth, you got to go through hundreds of feet of ice. That\u2019s not the reason we need it. We need it for strategic national security and international security.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

\n But hours later, Trump said the deal for Greenland included two parts: his \u201cGolden Dome<\/a>\u201d missile defense concept and minerals. That tracks with what his former national security adviser Mike Waltz told Fox News in 2024, when Waltz said that the administration\u2019s focus on Greenland was \u201cabout critical minerals\u201d and \u201cnatural resources.\u201d<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n The reality is that Denmark\u2019s ownership of Greenland is not what\u2019s stopping the United States from tapping the island\u2019s treasure trove. It\u2019s the punishing Arctic environment<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Researchers say it would be extremely difficult and expensive<\/a> to extract Greenland\u2019s minerals because many of the island\u2019s mineral deposits are located in remote areas above the Arctic Circle, where there is a mile-thick polar ice sheet and darkness reigns much of the year.\n <\/p>\n

\n Not only that, but Greenland, a self-ruling territory of Denmark, lacks the infrastructure and manpower required to make this mining dream a reality.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe idea of turning Greenland into America\u2019s rare-earth factory is science fiction. It\u2019s just completely bonkers,\u201d said Malte Humpert, founder and senior fellow at The Arctic Institute. \u201cYou might as well mine on the moon. In some respects, it\u2019s worse than the moon.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Despite its name, approximately 80% of Greenland<\/a> is covered with ice. And mineral extraction \u2014 or just about anything \u2014 in the Arctic can be five to 10 times more expensive than doing it elsewhere on the planet.\n <\/p>\n

\n Trump\u2019s interest in Greenland is not new \u2014 nor is he the first US president to covet <\/a>the island.\n <\/p>\n

\n For years, if not decades, officials in Greenland have courted foreign direct investment. People in Greenland say they already are open to business opportunities without any belligerence.\n <\/p>\n

\n Getting US businesses to take a chance on Greenland may be a fantasy, experts say.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf there was a \u2018pot of gold\u2019 waiting at the end of the rainbow in Greenland, private businesses would have gone there already,\u201d said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.\n <\/p>\n

\n However, Funk Kirkegaard, who previously worked with the Danish Ministry of Defense, said it\u2019s just \u201cvery difficult\u201d to make a business case for the very large upfront investment that would be required.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s possible Trump tries to provide financial incentives and guarantees to entice US companies to make those massive investments, similar to the guarantees that Big Oil is seeking to drill aggressively in Venezuela.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf given enough taxpayer dollars, private business would be willing to do almost anything,\u201d Funk Kirkegaard said. \u201cBut is that a good foundation on which to purchase a territory? The answer is no in Greenland, just as it\u2019s no in Venezuela.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The climate crisis has caused melting ice and rapidly rising temperatures in the Arctic, leading some to hope for new economic opportunities.\n <\/p>\n

\n However, it\u2019s too early to say this will be enough of a game-changer to overcome the environmental challenges of mining in Greenland. While ice melt has opened up some shipping routes, it has also made the ground less stable to drill and raises the risk of landslides.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cClimate change doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s easy. This is not the Mediterranean or your bathtub. There\u2019s just less ice freeze,\u201d said Humpert of The Arctic Institute.\n <\/p>\n

\n Relatedly, Greenland\u2019s stringent environmental regulations would add expense and difficulty to widespread mining.\n <\/p>\n

\n Of course, those regulations reflect the local population\u2019s desire to keep the environment pristine. If the Trump administration somehow made those regulations disappear, it might prove deeply unpopular.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou could end up having a hostile local political situation,\u201d Funk Kirkegaard said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Adam Lajeunesse, chair in Canadian and Arctic policy at St. Francis Xavier University, said Trump\u2019s \u201cbizarre rhetoric\u201d about taking over Greenland risks undermining the economic and strategic objectives US officials by harming the relationship with Greenland and Denmark.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou could see the United States no longer viewed as a friend and partner but as a bully that should be resisted,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n To some extent, this may already be happening.\n <\/p>\n

\n Christian Keldsen, managing director of the Greenland Business Association, cautions US officials risk damaging the relationship with the local population.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAt the moment, everything American is a red flag,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone is wondering, \u2018Am I supporting someone taking over my country?\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he reached a framework for a deal with NATO over the future…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-422561","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}