In traditional diplomacy, progress is usually slow. The Trump administration does not follow that old script. When President Donald Trump renewed his demand to acquire Greenland earlier this year, foreign policy experts panicked.
Page F6From§Eachthe coffee break edition — 27 September 2026
Trump announces permanent control of Greenland; Denmark keeps sovereignty, taxpayers get the basing bill
You will have read that the United States got Greenland for nothing, and you will want to know what nothing costs. Permanent control, the president called it on Friday. The agreement signed at the United Nations on Tuesday says otherwise: Danish sovereignty maintained, Greenlandic autonomy maintained, the American military presence affirmed and expanded. Not title. Access. A usufruct is the right to use another's property and take the fruits while the owner keeps the deed — and the fruits here are rare earth minerals, oil, gas. Denmark holds the island. Washington holds the yield. And what does the holder owe? Upkeep. An agreement allowing access, the dispatch says, is only the beginning ... and the beginning is basing, and basing is built, and built is billed. The experts laughed. On the nineteenth of this month the three governments were preparing to sign. Nobody bought an island. Somebody bought the upkeep.
A man borrows the horse. The hay a man buys. Winter is not over.
“They swore there was no money for your kid's school, and then they found a whole island. Denmark keeps the sovereignty, Greenland keeps the autonomy, and we keep the construction schedule — that is not an acquisition, that is a lease where the tenant does the renovations. The rare earths and the oil go to whoever drills them, and the runway bill comes to you.”
“Look, nobody is paying for anything, we gained access, access is free, that is the entire — did I say free? That doesn't sound like me. The agreement maintains Danish sovereignty and Greenlandic autonomy, which is exactly why the president calls it permanent control, and if you think those two things fight each other, take it up with the signing page, because both of them are in there.”
The receipts
Greenland's untapped rare earth minerals, oil and gas reserves could reshape U.S. energy security as Trump's Denmark deal expands military presence.
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.
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.
· Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. makes a personal visit to Greenland weeks after Trump announced that "ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity". In response to the visit, Danish prime from the morgue, 7 Jan 2025
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.