Danish and international commentators dismissed President Donald Trump's claim that the deal he announced Friday gives the United States "permanent control" over Greenland's security as what one journalist called a "repackaging" of long-standing agreements spun as a foreign policy win. Trump—who has repeatedly threatened to gain control…
Page F2From§Eachthe breakfast edition — 24 September 2026
Seventeen days after a US firm bought Greenland's rare-earth mine, America gets 'permanent control' of Greenland free
As it ran on the front
You will have seen the phrase permanent control and reached for a map. Put it down. The agreement signed Tuesday at the United Nations affirms and expands the American military presence in Greenland while maintaining Greenlandic autonomy and Danish sovereignty. Denmark keeps the sovereignty. Greenland keeps the autonomy. Washington keeps the presence, and the presence is the point. Usufruct is the arrangement by which one party holds the deed and another takes the fruits, and it is an old instrument, quite the handsomest in the drawer.
You are thinking somebody paid for this. Seventeen days before the announcement, a US-based company quietly inked a deal to buy a Greenland mining company — one that would produce more than a third of the world's rare earth magnet supply excluding China. Seventeen days ... and then, on Friday, the word permanent. "Permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland," Trump said. Control, mind you. Not title. One journalist called it a "repackaging."…
…(cont) And the price to Washington? "'Free' is about to get very expensive," the Examiner allows, without saying expensive to whom.
More than a third of the world's rare earth magnet supply, excluding China, sits under ground the United States did not buy.
In a man's name the well stays. Another man draws it dry.
“They're calling it free, so ask which side of the table got the thing worth money: a US company inked the purchase of the mine that would make more than a third of the world's rare-earth magnets outside China, and seventeen days later we're told we have "permanent control" at no charge. Nobody had to buy the island — you don't buy a place when somebody hands you the keys and keeps paying the mortgage. That's not a treaty, that's a lease with no rent, and the rent is the rock.”
“Nobody bought anything, that's the whole point, Danish sovereignty is maintained, it says so in the text — that's a win for the alliance. The mine? Separate transaction, private company, I don't even — did I say transaction? That's not a word I'd use. A firm making a purchase seventeen days before a security agreement is a coincidence, and last I checked coincidences are still legal.”
The receipts
President Trump’s new Greenland security deal comes just 17 days after a US-based company quietly inked a deal to buy a Greenland mining company that would produce more than a third of the world's rare earth magnet supply excluding China.
Trump promised the Ukraine war would end within 24 hours - and made that promise 53 separate times, CNN counted. CNN fact check, 25 April 2025 (all 53 instances)
Trump announces deal giving US ‘permanent control’ over Greenland’s securityThe United States has entered into an agreement with Denmark and Greenland to have a lasting military presence in the semi-autonomous territory, President Donald Trump announced on Friday. Trump said the deal will give the U.S. “permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S.
Trump promised the Ukraine war would end within 24 hours - and made that promise 53 separate times, CNN counted. CNN fact check, 25 April 2025 (all 53 instances)
Trump: US strikes security deal with Greenland, DenmarkPresident Trump said Friday that the United States has entered a security agreement with Greenland and Denmark that gives America a bigger say in the Arctic territory's affairs and expands its military presence in the country. Trump said the deal “gives the United States permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland…
The Trump administration on Tuesday signed an agreement with the Kingdom of Denmark and the autonomous territory of Greenland at the United Nations. It affirms and expands the American military presence in Greenland while maintaining Greenlandic autonomy and Danish sovereignty. But an agreement allowing access is only the beginning.
The Trump administration has finally secured a deal on Greenland. But it was reached despite President Donald Trump’s self-defeating tactics and rhetoric, not because of them. On Friday, the president announced that the U.S.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.