Washington Didn’t Annex Greenland. It Just Signed a Deal That Gives It Everything Annexation Would Have.

After the better part of a year spent musing that he might take Greenland “one way or the other,” Donald Trump got almost everything he wanted this week — he just had to let Denmark and Greenland sign the paperwork themselves. In a ceremony at the United Nations in New York, on the same day he told the General Assembly he might have to “annihilate” a different country entirely, Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Greenlandic Premier Jens-Frederik Nielsen signed a trilateral “Arctic security agreement” that hands the United States indefinite military access across the island, a veto over who else is allowed to invest there, and, as far as anyone can determine, no requirement whatsoever that Greenlanders themselves were ever consulted on the substance.

The United Nations headquarters in New York, where the Arctic security agreement was signed this week.

Everything but the Invasion

The agreement amends a defense pact dating back to 1951 and lets the U.S. expand its existing Pituffik Space Base while building two new installations at Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig, roughly 950 miles apart. American aircraft can now fly over and land anywhere on the island, including its territorial waters, with undersea access included. The deal carries no expiration date and — a detail future historians will enjoy — keeps binding even if Greenland becomes fully independent of Denmark.

“This agreement gives the United States permanent control over security and all other needs on that territory,” Trump said at the signing. “No U.S. adversary will ever be permitted to establish a military presence in Greenland anymore.” He called the whole arrangement “tremendous for Europe and for the United States and for everybody” — a phrase that did not require him to specify which member of “everybody” actually asked for it.

Sovereignty, Some Assembly Required

It was Frederiksen who, less than a year ago, warned that any U.S. attempt to seize Greenland by force would “end the NATO alliance.” This week she signed a document granting the U.S. more or less everything short of force, calling it “a deal that can last forever” and insisting it respects both “the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark” and “Greenland’s right to self-determination.”

Greenland’s own premier, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, went further, calling the arrangement a “win-win-win” that should “put to rest any doubt about where Greenland’s loyalty lies.” Whether loyalty was ever really the question, as opposed to leverage, went politely unaddressed.

Kulusuk, East Greenland — home to some of the roughly 57,000 residents nobody polled about this specific deal.

Nobody Actually Asked Greenland

The last time anyone bothered to properly poll the roughly 57,000 people who live there, the answer wasn’t close. A survey published in January 2025 by the Verian agency, and reported by Berlingske and Sermitsiaq, found 85 percent of Greenlanders opposed joining the United States outright, with 6 percent in favor and 9 percent undecided. Americans weren’t much more enthusiastic: a Reuters/Ipsos poll from January 2026 put U.S. approval of acquiring Greenland at 17 percent, with 71 percent opposed to using military force to do it.

Nobody has since polled Greenlanders on the narrower question of “indefinite American military bases with no expiration date, but sovereignty is respected, we promise.” Presumably the paperwork moved faster than anyone could write the question.

Call it an agreement, a partnership, or a security arrangement — the map still says Denmark, the flag still says Greenland, and the bases now belong to whoever was threatening to take them by force twelve months ago. Everyone at the podium called it a win. Nobody at the podium was actually from Nuuk.