Trump says rare earths are part of his Greenland deal. It’s ‘completely bonkers’

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

“They’re going to be involved in mineral rights, and so are we,” Trump said about NATO and the United States in an interview with CNBC after the initial announcement on Truth Social.

He didn’t specify any preliminary terms.

But Greenland’s untapped mineral wealth has helped land the island at the top of Trump’s empire-building wish list.

Trump officials view Greenland’s underground riches as a way to loosen China’s stranglehold over the rare-earth metals that are critical for everything from fighter jets and lasers to electric vehicles and MRI scanners.

Trump has downplayed Greenland’s natural resources, including in his speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, when he said acquiring rare-earth minerals wasn’t the reason America needed the territory.

“Everyone talks about the minerals. There are so many,” Trump said.

“There’s no such thing as rare earth. There’s rare processing. But there’s so much rare earth. And to get to this rare earth, you have to go through hundreds of feet of ice. That’s not the reason we need it. We need it for strategic national security and international security.”

But hours later, Trump said the deal for Greenland included two parts: his “Golden Dome” 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’s focus on Greenland was “about critical minerals” and “natural resources.”

The reality is that Denmark’s ownership of Greenland is not what’s stopping the United States from tapping the island’s treasure trove. It’s the punishing Arctic environment.

‘Completely bonkers’

Researchers say it would be extremely difficult and expensive to extract Greenland’s minerals because many of the island’s 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.

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

“The idea of turning Greenland into America’s rare-earth factory is science fiction. It’s just completely bonkers,” said Malte Humpert, founder and senior fellow at The Arctic Institute.

“You might as well mine on the moon. In some respects, it’s worse than the moon.”

Despite its name, approximately 80% of Greenland is covered with ice.

And mineral extraction — or just about anything — in the Arctic can be five to 10 times more expensive than doing it elsewhere on the planet.

Trump’s interest in Greenland is not new — nor is he the first US president to covet the island.

For years, if not decades, officials in Greenland have courted foreign direct investment.

People in Greenland say they are open to business opportunities without any belligerence.

‘The pot of gold’ myth

Getting US businesses to take a chance on Greenland may be a fantasy, experts say.

“If there was a ‘pot of gold’ waiting at the end of the rainbow in Greenland, private businesses would have gone there already,” said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

However, Funk Kirkegaard, who previously worked with the Danish Ministry of Defense, said it’s just “very difficult” to make a business case for the very large upfront investment that would be required.

Trump may try 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.

“If given enough taxpayer dollars, private business would be willing to do almost anything,” Funk Kirkegaard said.

“But is that a good foundation on which to purchase a territory? The answer is no in Greenland, just as it’s no in Venezuela.”

Environmental factors

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

However, it’s 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 raised the risk of landslides.

“Climate change doesn’t mean it’s easy. This is not the Mediterranean or your bathtub. There’s just less ice freeze,” said Humpert of The Arctic Institute.

Relatedly, Greenland’s stringent environmental regulations would add expense and difficulty to widespread mining.

Of course, those regulations reflect the local population’s desire to keep the environment pristine.

If the Trump administration somehow made those regulations disappear, it might prove deeply unpopular.

“You could end up having a hostile local political situation,” Funk Kirkegaard said.

Friend or bully?

Adam Lajeunesse, chair in Canadian and Arctic policy at St. Francis Xavier University, said Trump’s “bizarre rhetoric” about taking over Greenland risks undermining the economic and strategic objectives of US officials by harming the relationship with Greenland and Denmark.

“You could see the United States no longer viewed as a friend and partner but as a bully that should be resisted,” he said.

To some extent, this may already be happening.

Christian Keldsen, managing director of the Greenland Business Association, cautions that US officials risk damaging the relationship with the local population.

“At the moment, everything American is a red flag,” he said.

“Everyone is wondering, ‘Am I supporting someone taking over my country?’”