This is One Thing, I'm David Reind, and Americans are used to President Donald Trump's threats by now. But the people of Greenland are getting a crash course. The view that Trump would want to own a large

piece of real estate here is alien to the very core of culture and existence here. So alien.

Why no one on the island is laughing this one off. Stick around. Greenland is gigantic. Not in population, just 57,000 people live there. But in terms of land, it's 836,000 square miles of ice, snow, and natural resources located smack dab between the US and Europe. People who do live there keep alive Inuit traditions, like seal and whale hunting. The Arctic Island is an autonomous territory of Denmark, kind of like how Puerto Rico operates in relation to the U.S. Has its own rules on government, et cetera. Net comparison is a useful one because if Trump had his way, Greenland would be a U.S. Territory.

We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and the European Union needs us to have it.

Have an official statement from the press secretary, Carolyn Lovett, essentially saying that the administration is looking at a range of options in order to acquire Greenland, and that military action is not off the table.

'Now, the US has tried to acquire Greenland before. After the US bought Alaska from Russia in 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward floated the idea of buying Greenland and Iceland from Denmark. Nothing came of it. In 1910, the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark wrote to the Assistant Secretary of States, suggesting an island-for-island swap. That also didn't go anywhere. And then in 1946, after defending Greenland in World War II, President Harry Truman offered Denmark $100 million in gold for it. The Danes didn't bite. And that brings us to today. Trump's threats to potentially take the island by force have ramped up ever since the US captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, but they've also been roundly rejected by officials in Europe. Multiple countries are now sending military personnel to the island in a show of solidarity. And in the US, even some Republican lawmakers say this would be a bridge too far to say nothing of how the American people feel.

75% of adults in CNN's latest poll say they oppose the U.S. Attempting to take control of Greenland. Only 25% favor that idea. Even among Republicans, there's a lot of opposition. 52% of them support it. Now, that's low for Republicans on any policy that President Trump champions.

So why is Trump still so fixated on this idea? What would happen if he did follow through? And how do Greenlanders feel about all of this? Tell me where you are right now.

Nuke in Greenland it's about a hundred and fifteen miles south of the Arctic Circle where we're at Greenland itself is just vast and I know when you sit here it feels like a very small part of it

Nick Robertson is CNN's international diplomatic editor. I spoke to him on Wednesday evening. Well, so let's talk about President Trump and what he might want out of this place. Because after he won the presidency in 2024, he started talking about taking control of Greenland, maybe even by military force. And that idea kind of goes back to his first term, actually. But then last year, his son, Don Jr., visited Vice President J.D. Vance, made a visit to a military installation on the island. But nothing. Came of it. I think some people were even kind of laughing it off. So does it feel different this time around? Yeah, sure.

When you talk to people here, they say, we didn't take it seriously last time. You know, Donald Trump has a habit of saying things and then he moves on. And I think the people I've spoken to here feel that, wow, now he's got serious about it.

We don't take Greenland. Russia or China will take Green Land. And I am not going to let that happen.

Is there any deal they can offer you?

Yeah, sure, I'd love to make a deal with them, it's easier. But one way or the other, we're going to have Greenland.

And he keeps, almost every day, keeps saying something along the lines of, we'll get it, either the easy way or the hard way. And so there are people here who didn't talk before about how they feel about this claim by President Trump and now speaking out about it because he's getting very, very serious and they didn't feel...

It was that way before. Well, what does he actually want out of it? Like what is his rationale for having the U.S. Control it?

National security is the principal thing.

Greenland from a national security situation. It's so strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.

And he frames it a couple of ways. He says at times that Russian and Chinese ships are nearby, Russia and China could take over Greenland.

You know what Denmark did recently? To boost up security in Greenland, they added one more dog sled. It's true. They thought that was a great move.

He's also said that he wants the rights for mining minerals here, rare earths, which Greenland says it has plenty of. Greenlanders that I talk to and ministers in the government say, look, we have this deal with the United States in 1951, which gives the United State right to have any amount of bases that it wants to have in Greenland, military bases, that has the right to mine any amount of minerals they want. The door's open for business, the door's opened. For US troops, and if you're here, the conversation you have with people is like, well, what does he mean when he says he needs it for national security interests? We don't see the Chinese, we don't the Russians, and the doors open, come, please put your troops here. That's the view. There's a disconnect. People here feel that, you know, President Trump, and any outsiders actually, they feel that the outsider's narrative about Greenland is about size, it's about resources, This is about strategy, military strategy. Geopolitical strategy. And they say to me, well, when we talk about Greenland, we talk about family, we talked about nature, we took about our cultural heritage with that nature. And they feel that you have to be from here to understand that, and that as outsiders, no one does. I guess it just comes normally to drive, be able to drive on snow and ice. Most countries everything just comes to a standstill.

Yeah, no, it's very normal.

So we met up with this artisan, Mia Kamnitz, and we followed her around. She inherited the business from her mother, and it's doing really well.

What are you making here?

Making mittens.

Sealskin Mittens. Yep. Who buys Sealskins Mittens?

Everyone, I feel like some years ago we kind of had this idea that we have amazing materials in Greenland and the seal has been keeping Inuit warm for...

They make traditional clothing, the smocks, the seal skin trousers, the seal skin jacket, seal skin mittens. And, you know, to an outside world, that may sound a little strange, but because they eat the seal, they are allowed to export, if you will. And it's traditional for them to make seal skin clothing or polar bear clothing, polar bear trousers. So they're using like all.

Parts of the

they're using all the parts of the animal and it's a tradition to do that and it is a tradition that really is strongly alive today so her business is doing well.

We are kind of ready in my company to make big investments right now and everything is ready.

She's got a store, she's got to workshop. She's ready to grow the business. She employs about 10 to 15 people and she's ready to move the business on into larger premises. But now she says, how can I do that in these conditions where the country feels threatened? I don't know if I'll wake up in a few weeks, months to find that I'm American. How can I be expanding my business? It's very disconcerting.

One of very few companies that only work with local materials, have a local production with local people. You can point to every single item in my store and I can tell you who made it and I would like to keep doing that.

So what's your message for Donald Trump?

I don't have a message for Donald Trump, I don´t think he would listen to me.

For Americans, Chamboree.

For Americans generally, I think the important message for me is that we do not want to become Americans.

Again, when you're culturally cut off for a long time, there's that sense of isolation, there's the sense of the things that affect you are the things in your immediate environment. Suddenly that's all changed because here you have the long arm of a superpower reaching in. And that's DC.

Stabilizing everyone's lives. And I imagine it's not just a superpower, but it's a superpower run by Donald Trump who has a way of speaking, a way exerting his influence over things that I imagine is probably a little jarring to folks who are just kind of content with living within their world, within their cultures, and how they kind of go about things.

It's very jarring and I've talked to a few people about that and one of the ways that it's jarring is that the culture here, the Inuit culture, the inuit way is to be quiet. They don't argue publicly, they don't come out with strong points, you know, Donald Trump said this, I say this, that's not the way they are. And I said, why are you guys so quiet, what is it in your traditions that lead you that way? And I was told, look, you know, when you grow up. Where you're going out hunting seals or reindeer or polar bear or whatever it is, any tiny little noise scares your prey, the thing that gives you your existence. Then you learn to be quiet. So there's this quietness and I asked, well, if you're quiet, how do you deal with somebody as loud as Donald Trump? And frankly, there isn't really an answer to that.

We're friendly, we're peaceful people. We've never had a war, we've never taken part in wars. You know, the Greenland, we don't even have military in Greenland because we don't do war.

It's an answer, well, we hope that they'll be dialogued, we hope for this. But it's an answered that doesn't really deal with that volume and that intensity that Donald Trump puts across that he uses as a business tactic. But this is entirely alien to them. So culturally, they don't have a way to respond. And that's one of the things they're struggling with at the moment.

Are you afraid that if America gets control of Greenland, you're gonna lose some of that identity and tradition?

I'm not afraid they will lose some of it, I'm afraid they'll lose all of it.

So what does the diplomatic path forward look like? And why are European countries sending in troops? Nick and I will be back in a bit.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen from the press.

Well, let's talk about that dialog, because Danish and Greenland officials met with Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday. What did we learn from that? Is there a path forward here?

There's a path forward, but it's a path that's as fraught as it was as the minute they went into the meeting.

'The discussions focused on how to ensure the long-term security in Greenland. And here, our perspectives continue to differ, I must say. The president has made his view clear and we have

'The Danish Foreign Minister, Lars Lokey Rasmussen, is a very skilled diplomat and he can be really tough, I'm told, in negotiations. He's been around the block and would, I am told, be a match for Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who were also in the meeting. But what he's been able to do is define the differences and agree to talk about the issue in a couple of weeks' time.

'Have decided to form a high-level working group to explore if we can find a common way forward. The group, in our view, should focus on how to address the American security concerns while at the same time respecting the red lines of the Kingdom of Denmark.

'So what has he really achieved here? In reality, I think what is achieved for the people of Greenland is that for the next couple of weeks, they're not going to fear that the United States is going to come and invade them, although they still will worry, because they saw what happened when the Iranians last summer said they were in talks with President Trump, and then the United State's bombed Iran. The Venezuelans maybe thought they were on a different path. So the worry will be there, but for people here, that's a respite. It does something else as well, it gives the Danes time to do more diplomacy and build their support in Europe. The Danish have said that they are putting more troops into Greenland and we've heard that the Swedes, the Norwegians, the Germans are, but it's only small numbers. It's just a sort of a fact-finding mission, if you will.

Yeah, I mean, I was going to ask, are those moves by, you know, some of these European countries to send in some military folks, is that a peace offering to Trump to say, hey, we're here, we can patrol these waters for these supposed Russian or Chinese ships? Like, what should we make of that? And this this working group? Like, is this actual concrete steps that will satisfy Trump?

Potentially it will be something, but at the moment it's far from what President Trump is asking for, which is control of Greenland. Denmark and Greenland have already been incredibly clear and redline, redline diplomatic terms, incredibly clear to the United States. You are not going to have Greenland, it cannot be clearer than that. So when the foreign minister of Denmark says there's going to be a working group over the next few weeks, it's a diplomatic way of saying we're trying to tone down the language, we're try to bring it into a group of experts, this may not be happening at the foreign ministry. Secretary of State level. It buys time for Denmark to build more international support. It gives time for President Trump to consider and mull his options as NATO and the European Union begin to frame a stronger response. But this does not change the fundamental red line that they will not surrender sovereignty to the United States. That is incredibly clear. This is just kick the can.

Yeah. And like we've seen before, President Trump doesn't always, you know, work on those types of traditional diplomatic timelines or norms. So who knows, you know, a true social post in the middle of the night can kick something off at a moment's notice.

It could. People here know that they could wake up tomorrow, probably not tomorrow, but in two weeks, and find that the United States has declared that they've taken control of a key strategic facilities here in Greenland, which the Danish troops have come to secure in the past couple of days. Greenland doesn't have a military, but as part of the Kingdom of Denmark, it has Danish troops, of course, because it's part of Denmark. The military here cannot be prepared and stop U.S. Forces coming and taking control. Everyone here knows they are up against a very fluid, mercurial leader who doesn't like to back away from his statements, and they're backed into a corner right now.

I mean, play that out for me if it's something like that to happen.

Well, so let's play it out. So the United States lands troops in nuke and various other places in Greenland, that it then takes control over the council, over government buildings, over electricity, over water pumping, over the means of life and declares that they're in control. And the United State puts in place their own governor, let's say, because it would become therefore another state of the United states, and would expect the people of Greenland. To surrender their Danish citizenship, become US citizens, this would be a very, very divisive move by President Trump that would alienate him from his democratic allies across the Atlantic in Europe. So it would destroy transatlantic relations. It would destroy the fabric of NATO. There would be no going back from something like this. This is the doomsday scenario.

Man, that is one dystopian picture that you're painting.

Yeah, I really hope it's dystopian and I really hope it doesn't happen. But, but you know, when you pull the pin, things happen irreversibly.

Things happen. I know national security experts say that the future of Arctic security is actually a big deal. So could this be the case where Trump has diagnosed some kind of problem here that is a real problem but is just maybe off the mark on the solution? Yeah, as soon as

'Many times President Trump is looking ahead and seeing issues that are coming, that there is a change in the Arctic, that the polar ice cap is melting, that there is going to be a contest for global resources of minerals and rare earths. And the United States wants to position itself well and perhaps feels behind the ball, behind the curve, if you will, vis-a-vis China and Chinese access to rare some minerals. From that point of view, the door is open to the United States, the 1951 treaty between the United states and Denmark. The door is opened for the United state to come and mine as much minerals and rare earths as they want. And I had that conversation with the deputy minister of mining here and he said, look, this door has been open for a long time, the United State just hasn't been coming. It doesn't seem to want to invest in the mines and minerals. And the same applies for the security. The Danes, the Greenlanders, don't see this Russia-China threat in the immediate terms how President Trump frames it. They don't believe that it exists there. And the United States does have access to any amount of military troops on the ground in Greenland. If you go back a few decades, there were 17 US military bases in Green Land and there were about 10,000 US troops here. But the treaty and the Greenlanders and the Danes are all very clear as well. You can have any amount of US troops you want in Greenland. It's up to you. You can bring them in. The door's open. You don't have to ring the ring. You don't have to wait.

So, Nick, if you're telling me that this issue of minerals, not really an issue. The US could come in and do what they want, grab what they wanted. If you're saying that the issue of defense, the US could plop more troops there if they wanted, is also not really any issue. I guess I keep going back to the same question. Why? Why does Trump want to control this place where it seems like he has some leeway to kind of make his presence felt already? It's a great question and that's the question ever.

Everyone here is asking, and I'm not sure that anyone really knows the answer. And what's the wildest hypothesis?

That someone has offered you since you've been there.

Uh, the wildest hypothesis might be that he wants it because it's big, just because it is a big piece of land and he likes big, I mean, this is not the kind of place where you're really going to be able to build another Trump tower. This is not a place where could realistically envisage what Trump has envisaged before for Gaza, um, you know, a Mediterranean beachside paradise with resort hotels. This is not that

kind of place. There was talk of Trump administration paying residents of Greenland, right, to kind of come along with with a plan. Did anybody you talked to want that money?

Nobody wants the money. There isn't a price that will buy them individually or collectively as a country. They say, look, if you were to make an offer, as was rumored a week or so ago, that President Trump would offer them $100,000, people said to me, look will we just be spending that money on buying private healthcare because we wouldn't have the public healthcare system or spending on education. They don't pay for schools, they don't for hospital bills, they don't pay to go to the doctor. These are the things, and I've talked to people here, These are the things that they're really worried about. The other foreign idea, of course, is this idea of land ownership by an individual or individuals. The land in Greenland is shared. Everyone owns it. Everyone has a right. That's how Greenland works. That is not how the United States works. And the view that Trump would want to own a large piece of real estate here is alien to the very core of culture existence here. So alien.

Thank you very much, David. Alright, that's all for us today. Thank you as always for listening. We'll be back on Wednesday, and I'll talk to you then.