In a Jan. 29 New York Times opinion piece titled “Trump’s Greenland Envoy: We Need ‘Total, Unfettered Access,’” Jeff Landry, Governor of Louisiana and U.S. Special Envoy to Greenland, attempts to build support behind President Donald Trump’s push to take over Greenland as he explains the so-called reasonings behind the policy: “history,” the strategic necessity for the United States to dominate the Western Hemisphere and the Arctic to counter Russia and China, and commercial gains.
Landry begins with the emotional pitch that “history” demands a “military-alliance” with Greenland, which, he says, “Americans have defended with their blood.” When exactly was this? Heartstrings are tugged as Landry tells about the World War II sinking of an American ship off the coast of Greenland by a German U-boat, in which hundreds of U.S. soldiers heroically died defending Greenland from the Nazis. If U.S. presence in Greenland during World War II does not convince you of the need for a U.S. takeover of Greenland today, read on for more.
Landry says that President Donald Trump is brilliant, better than his predecessors. “When President Trump took office last year, he recognized an uncomfortable fact that many others have avoided: America must guarantee its own unfettered and uninterrupted access to key strategic territories in the Western Hemisphere, including both Greenland and the Panama Canal.” After briefly paying homage to “American leadership” in removing the leader of Venezuela in a “reinvigoration of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine,” Landry returns to the question of Greenland as a security necessity for American dominance in the Arctic.
While Landry insists that he “cannot divulge the details, as they are being worked out,” he points to an upcoming framework that “President Trump believes will lead to the United States’ gaining total, unfettered access to the island.” He says that “the framework builds on the 1941 and 1951 defense agreements between the United States and Denmark and would enhance American, NATO and Greenlandic security and reaffirm longstanding trans-Atlantic defense obligations. It would expand America’s operational freedom, support new bases and infrastructure, facilitate deployment of advanced missile-defense systems like the Golden Dome and crowd out hostile Chinese and Russian influence.” Landry insists, however: “These measures are not provocative—they are preventive. They would ensure that the United States, not its adversaries, sets the rules in one of the world’s most strategically consequential regions in perpetuity.”
The Arctic, he argues, is a critical strategic zone: “The Arctic is no longer peripheral to global affairs. Greenland sits roughly equidistant between Washington and Moscow. It hosts critical early-warning and missile-defense infrastructure and lies along Arctic shipping routes that China and Russia are aggressively seeking to exploit.” China and Russia have both expanded their icebreaker fleets and Arctic infrastructure, while the U.S. has not, but under President Trump we have begun to do so, thanks to his April 2025 executive order, “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance.”
Landry identifies the role of commercial enterprise as he describes his mission as special envoy: “to advance American national security while opening avenues of economic opportunity, including for states like Louisiana, where I am governor.”
Are you convinced?
