this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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The plan would replace the $600 million in subsidies Denmark gives the island each year

The Donald Trump administration is reportedly considering giving about $10,000 to each Greenland resident as part of its plan to annex the island.

The possibility would seek to replace the $600 million Denmark gives the territory in subsidies every year, and has stopped being mere rhetoric to become official U.S. policy, according to The New York Times.

The outlet detailed that the plan already includes several cabinet departments and that the White House's National Security Council has met several times to advance on it, recently sending specific instructions to different offices.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 hours ago

Fuck you revolting jackass. How's about you spend 10k per person on healthcare and housing subsidies.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

The fuck?! As if Kalaaliit culture is worth only 10K to each person. US can get stuffed. Culture is priceless.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

Think about all the fucking starbucks you can buy with $10k! That's like a coffee and bagel everyday for a year. Fucking startbucks man! C'mon it'll be great

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago

"America First!" -> garbage $600,000 bribe to Greenland citizens

[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Would that even pay for the first year of medical insurance that you will need?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

The insurance? Sure, it would easily cover that.

The cost of medical care, even with insurance? Not even close.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 hours ago

No lol not even close the way they charge for private insurance

[–] [email protected] 60 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

Why so stingy? The Greenland population is about 56,000. You could offer every Greenlander a million dollars, and it would only come to $56 billion, still a bargain in the grand scheme of things. If you actually want to buy someone's country out from under them, that's the kind of money you need to be talking about.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

A million? In this economy? I'd want at least $100m to sell out my own country.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

This is the same government that brought us the Louisiana Purchase and Seward's Folly, both of which were really cheap land grabs. They just need to find a quasi-official way for someone to accept the terms and then execute the terms by force. The $10,000 agreement is their legal shield for taking the land by force.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

It's not the same government though. The Alaska purchase was in 1867. The US has an entirely different kind of government than it did back then. And we're in an entirely different historical era. You can't just blindly assume what worked in 1867 is going to work or be remotely applicable in 2025.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Oh, jesus. Of course it's not the exact same government, but it's America and America is comprised of people and people are fundamentally the same as they were 200 years ago. Ignoring that, this will work because if anything Land Grabs are waaay more common now than they were back then.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 hours ago

Land grabs are more common now than in the 19th century? That's just completely false. That was the age of Manifest Destiny and overt colonization by European powers. Conflicts like Russia's invasion of Ukraine are so notable because they are so rare in the modern era. Today, global powers are more about economic influence, trading relationships, and economic spheres of influence. Turns out it's a lot cheaper and more efficient to just trade with people than to pay for the huge expense of maintaining an old-fashioned colonial empire. Look at China. They're expanding their influence through their Belt and Road Initiative, not through outright conquest and imperial subjugation. Or look at the US trade and influence machines it built after WW2 like the WTO, the World Bank, etc. It is very very rare for the great powers to outright seize land anymore. The US doesn't need to conquer Congo and become responsible for its people in order to gain access to its resources. It can just cut a check for them.

And no, it really isn't the same government. The federal government in 2025 has an entirely different relationship with the US population than it did in 1867. Hell, the entire way the US conducts military and diplomatic policy changed after WW2 and the dawn of the atomic era. The US hasn't formally declared war on anyone since WW2, when previously it was the norm for every conflict. Programs like Social Security or policies like anti-drug laws would have been unfathomable to a US citizen in 1867.

And if you want to say it's the same people, it really isn't. We're not the same people we were then, culturally or genetically. Even just ethnically, we've had so many waves of immigrants that our ethnic admixtures have completely changed. That's to say nothing of how much our norms and culture have fundamentally shifted. Try explaining gender nonbinary people to someone from 1867.

Look, I get it. It's tempting to adopt the old world-weary saying that nothing is new under the Sun, but I don't see how one can possibly look at the monumental changes in global technology, history, and culture over the last century and a half and conclude that things are basically the same. If nothing else, the introduction of nuclear weapons fundamentally changed the way the great powers manage their affairs.

Yes, you can be incredibly pedantic and say that, "well, human nature is the same, so fundamentally nothing has changed." But at that point you might as well be arguing that the US and ancient Babylon are the same country.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Take the money and tell him to fuck off. He's a con artist. Have him lose at his own game.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 hours ago

If it was taken seriously, Trump would promise the million after annexing them. Then would never pay and say he did. (Also absolutely insane that this is even a conversation)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago

When Greenlanders don't want to vote on it? Also if there was a vote does a simple majority count. Maybe 2/3. Or 90%? Or 100%? Does the US constitution allow for separatism despite Texas?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 14 hours ago

Hey when are we gonna get our $5000 Donny? I really need it to start building my crypto factory in order to become a billionaire by the summer.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 13 hours ago

President Sundowner isn't going to do shit.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 16 hours ago

Is that what 30 pieces of silver is worth in this market?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Oh gee Mr Trump a whole 10000, I can buy so many bubblegum with that

[–] [email protected] 45 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

I read someplace that theres about 17 trillion in minerals and oil in greenland. ~57000 population of greenland, so paying for just the mineral wealth not the land and other resources, he'd owe each inhabitant about 298 million. each. So he's paying them 1 /30,000th of what he should be offering.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

Whatever the actual net value is, it's not that. There isn't just a 17 trillion pile of minerals sitting somewhere on the surface.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah Greenland is actually in a tough spot. It has a lot of economic potential, but it can't unlock it without completely upending its own society. There are only 56,000 Greenlanders. If they wanted to expand mining enough to be economically self sufficient, they would need to bring in so many people that the existing population would become a minority. They would have to become an Arctic Dubai.

This is also why they don't want to be annexed by the US. (Even if the US still had sane leadership.) Once you're part of the US, any American that wishes can move there. Any American company can set up shop there. The existing society would be completely overrun.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 12 hours ago

And it would be an ecological disaster.

Not that the Trump administration nor mining corporations care about that, but it would suck for the Greenlanders and our planet.

[–] [email protected] 75 points 22 hours ago (18 children)

And...then?

  1. Greenland still belongs to Denmark even if you give 99999999 gazillion to each Greenlander

  2. I don't think anyone in Greenland is dumb enough to sell out their country for 10k to then live in a country where you will pay out of your ass in taxes, handing those 10k right back to the IRS in 5 years tops.

  3. Greenlanders would have to call themselves "Americans" henceforth, which is considered an insult and lower class of civilization world-wide.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 15 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 14 hours ago

Maybe Tariff money? Oh wait they are taxes on domestic importers.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

So if that's valid, could some states get bought by other countries? Hell, I bet many residents in some states would pay to have it be part of a different country.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 13 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 hours ago

I'd hold out for Norway or Finland; have you SEEN the Danish language?! ducks

[–] [email protected] 11 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I need some brave Canadian MP to make this kind of offer on Vermont or Michigan.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 16 hours ago

First... we take Manhattan...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 15 hours ago

Why so much? 10 cent would be enough. That of course, is if you want to insult them.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Who in their right mind would trust the US right now? Or ever really…the US undid so much precedent over the last few months that it is laughable to even consider trusting them.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 16 hours ago

Even before that, who would want to be in part of America by choice? The health care horror show and massive inequality are but two reasons.

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