When President Trump first mentioned his interest in buying Greenland during his first term, the idea was met with derision. They are laughing out of the other side of their mouths now. According to the Financial Times, President Trump called Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who had a 45-minute call on January 15, only a week after Donald Trump Jr. took “Trump Force One” on a Greenland junket (), which was “fiery” and left the Danes “freaked out.”

They added that Trump had been aggressive and confrontational following the Danish prime minister’s comments that the island was not for sale, despite her offer of more co-operation on military bases and mineral exploitation.

“It was horrendous,” said one of the people. Another added: “He was very firm. It was a cold shower. Before, it was hard to take it seriously. But I do think it is serious, and potentially very dangerous.”

Prime Minister Frederiksen may not have left the call motivated to divest herself of Greenland, but she wasn’t laughing about the seriousness of the situation.

Many European officials had hoped Trump’s comments about seeking control of Greenland for national security reasons were a negotiating ploy to gain more control over an increasingly vital area as nuclear-powered ice breakers are making the fabled Northwest viable and Russia and China are both also jostling for position there. Greenland is sparsely populated and would be an ideal target for China’s “elite capture” strategy, which they have aggressively pursued in suborning island nations in the Pacific. Quite honestly, Denmark is only a little less vulnerable than Greenland to China buying it outright.

At the heart of Trump’s interest in Greenland lies its strategic importance for national security. The island is rich in minerals crucial for technology and defense, including rare earth elements used in mobile phones, electric vehicles, and weapons. With China dominating the global rare earth market, Greenland’s reserves have become increasingly vital to the US.

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Greenland’s location, straddling the shortest route between Europe and North America, makes it a critical spot for the US military and its ballistic missile early-warning system. As China and Russia expand their influence in the Arctic, the US seeks to maintain its dominance in the region.

The Euros and the New York Times have concluded that Trump is deadly serious.

I think Trump is largely right in his assessment.

“People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it but, if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security,” Trump said at a press conference days before taking office.

“I’m talking about protecting the free world,” he added. “You have China ships all over the place. You have Russian ships all over the place. We’re not letting that happen.”

This is happening at a time when Greenlanders are beginning to agitate for a different governance arrangement with Denmark.

Múte Egede, Greenland’s prime minister, has repeatedly stressed that the island’s inhabitants want independence rather than US — or Danish — citizenship. But he has welcomed US business interest in mining and tourism.

If you really want to dig into the idea, I recommend .

Quite honestly, I don’t see how Greenland could sustain independence in the face of a concerted Chinese effort to establish control (Vitkor Orban’s Hungary allows uniformed Chinese police in Budapest). Our free association model is also showing weakness as China exerts influence there. The best arrangement would seem to be declaring Greenland to be a commonwealth (like Puerto Rico) or a territory (like Guam and the Virgin Islands). But no matter how it arrives, I think Greenland’s internal politics, which has had the right to declare independence since 2009 and that option is favored by 64 percent of the population, and the geopolitics of our competition with China indicate that Greenland becoming US territory is inevitable.