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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   34001 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 5, 2026

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Convince the locals to declare independence.

Reuters:

U.S. officials have discussed sending lump sum payments to Greenlanders as part of a bid to convince them to secede from Denmark and potentially join the United States, according to four sources familiar with the matter.

While the exact dollar figure and logistics of any payment are unclear, U.S. officials, including White House aides, have discussed figures ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 per person, said two of the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The idea of directly paying residents of Greenland, an overseas territory of Denmark, offers one explanation of how the U.S. might attempt to "buy" the island of 57,000 people, despite authorities' insistence in Copenhagen and Nuuk that Greenland is not for sale.

One of the sources familiar with White House deliberations said the internal discussions regarding lump sum payments were not necessarily new. However, that person said, they had gotten more serious in recent days, and aides were entertaining higher values, with a $100,000-per-person payment—which would result in a total payment of almost $6 billion—a real possibility.

Among the possibilities being floated by Trump's aides, a White House official said on Tuesday, is trying to enter into a type of agreement with the island called a Compact of Free Association.

The precise details of COFA agreements—which have only ever been extended to the small island nations of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau—vary depending on the signatory. But the U.S. government typically provides many essential services, such as mail delivery and military protection. In exchange, the U.S. military operates freely in COFA countries, and trade with the U.S. is largely duty-free.

6 billion is a rounding error in the defense budget, so they could go even higher. 100K is not life changing money though as Greenlands median incomes are rather high.

If it's anything like Nunavut, the cost of living there is extremely high.

I must admit, I had not heard this was an official position. Regardless, an offer to bribe the people runs into three problems:

  1. The money promised must be significantly more than what Denmark is currently providing, to account for the uncertainty inherent in a regime change.
  2. The Inuits currently live under pretty favorable conditions in that they have a lot of autonomy. Those conditions might change as the US takes over, which is something the payment would have to account for.
  3. Low trust in the US. The current administration seems to use every piece of leverage they have to get what they want, and are clearly willing to disregard international law if following it would be contrary to their interests. If they do acquire Greenland, what is going to stop them from going back on any promises they made, once Denmark and the other European countries are no longer in a position to bail the Inuits out?

For 2, there's a specific problem- Greenlandic whaling. This is uncontroversial in the Nordics(mainland Danes don't personally do any, but they're more than happy to permit it elsewhere, and the Nordics are the most prolific whalers in the world aside from Japan), but in the USA....

Inuit whale in the US as well.

The money promised must be significantly more than what Denmark is currently providing

One article indicates that Denmark's current subsidies are a bit more than 10 k$ per person-year.

Which would be worth about $200,000 per person in net present value.

Yeah. none of this is insurmountable, just very expensive. The question becomes how much the US is willing to pay.

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