By Jose Santiago
President Donald Trump has made many waves during his first couple of months back in office, including bold moves that affect Florida, such as renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and reiterating his intention to regain control of the Panama Canal.
Leaders of the Sunshine State rallied behind the president on these actions, with Florida lawmakers quickly advancing legislation to revise state statute to recognize the new name of the Gulf of America and Florida’s own Kevin Cabrera, a Miami Dade county commissioner, stepping up to the plate as Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Panama.
But what of President Trump’s eye-popping promise to seize Greenland? The Trump administration’s moves to acquire Greenland reached a new level of intensity recently as Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance visited the island to the displeasure of many Greenlanders.
President Trump’s interest in Greenland can seem odd at first, but it has become an unlikely focus of multiple major powers. Drawn in by its supply of critical minerals and nearness to a potential new sea route in the north due to rapidly melting Arctic ice, the Chinese have also shown growing interest in the island.
As a Marine veteran and a student of national security, I know it is essential that we keep Greenland out of Chinese hands and within America’s orbit, while also addressing one of the core underlying issues making Greenland so geographically significant in the first place.
First, there is the issue of critical minerals. Critical minerals such as gallium, germanium and arsenic metal are essential for modern technology, from semiconductors and infrared optics to jet engines and drone batteries.
Right now, China has a chokehold on critical mineral production and, during the Biden administration, it limited exports of select minerals. This is not only economically destabilizing — it’s a national security threat. When Communist China controls the resources we rely on to power our military, America is not safe, and unfortunately, Washington has not done nearly enough to address this problem.
Greenland has 25 of 34 critical minerals, but even if the U.S. were to seize every mine in Greenland, it wouldn’t be enough to offset our reliance on China. Trump must know this, which raises the question: Why else would he be trying so hard to gain control of this largely Arctic island?
For centuries, the Northwest Passage, the stretch of sea and ice north of Canada and Greenland, has been impassable. But with warming global temperatures, ice is melting in the Arctic and opening a potentially game-changing trade route between China and Russia that skirts past Greenland.
Robert O’Brien, President Trump’s past national security advisor, suggested this was a driving force behind Trump’s interest in the island, saying the Greenland waterway is “strategically very important to the Arctic, which is going to be the critical battleground of the future because as the climate gets warmer, the Arctic is going to be a pathway that maybe cuts down on the usage of the Panama Canal.”
This is one of many ways that a changing and unpredictable climate is complicating U.S. defense. In fact, the Department of Defense has in the past made a point to identify climate change as a significant threat multiplier for a large number of reasons, including rising sea levels, increased natural disasters and shifting weather patterns that strain our military resources, damage our infrastructure and weaken our overall security posture.
It’s more than a little ironic that here, too, we find a connection to China. While climate change is a global issue, China plays a key role, emitting more climate-change-causing carbon than the rest of the developed world combined. Meanwhile, cheap Chinese goods enabled by their dirty manufacturing sector undermine American manufacturing, including the industries necessary for our national security apparatus.
One idea that would help counter China on these various national security threats is a carbon tariff. Such an approach would impose fees on nations that undercut American producers through low environmental standards. This would help reshore manufacturing in industries vital to our military while simultaneously helping to reduce global emissions abroad. And while we won’t be able to re-freeze the melting Arctic ice in the short term, in the long term addressing climate change can make this new shipping pathway a less appealing option.
As we work to re-close the Russia-China Arctic passage and re-shore American manufacturing, America must simultaneously expand our sources for critical minerals both domestically and abroad. Greenland may be one option to access these important resources, but as long as China has control over the main components of the modern economy, Greenland isn’t enough.
Thankfully, Florida leaders in the Trump administration – such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz – and in Congress – including Sen. Rick Scott and Reps. Kat Cammack, Mike Haridopolos and Cory Mills – have taken strong stances against China. We can surely count on them to counter Chinese aggression, whether that aggression comes through trade, shipping or the environment.
Some might balk when President Trump takes an interest in Greenland. But with critical minerals on its shores and climate change transforming nearby waterways, Greenland is becoming just one more piece of the U.S. strategy to win the China-America great power struggle.
Jose “Santa” Santiago is a Marine veteran, a student at Daytona State College and a regional director of the Florida Federation of College Republicans. Banner photo: A village in eastern Greenland (iStock image).
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