What happened
House Republicans Monday released a bill that would allow President-elect Donald Trump to “enter into negotiations with the Kingdom of Denmark to secure the acquisition of Greenland,” the semiautonomous Danish territory that Trump has suggested the U.S. purchase or, if necessary, procure through economic or military force.
Who said what
The “Make Greenland Great Again Act” is the “latest in a series of proposed Republican legislation to bring Trump’s vision of a new, sprawling American empire to fruition,” Axios said.
Denmark and Greenland have repeatedly said the giant island in the Arctic Ocean is not for sale. But Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede said at a press conference Monday that the geopolitical “reality is we are going to work with the U.S. — yesterday, today and tomorrow,” especially on defense and natural resources. Greenland, home to “only about 56,000 people,” is mostly “covered in ice,” The New York Times said. But as “climate change melts the Arctic ice,” the U.S., Russia, China and Europe have been “eyeing” its emerging “Arctic’s shipping lanes” and “extensive mineral resources.”
What next?
Greenland is “subject to the Danish constitution,” Reuters said, so “any change to its legal status would require a constitutional amendment.”