Trump buying Greenland would be largest US territory acquisition ever topping even these massive gains

WASHINGTON, DC — President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to buy Greenland would be the US’s largest territorial addition in history — topping even the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, which nearly doubled America’s size at the time.Trump, 78, on Sunday added steam to his push to acquire the Arctic island when he announced PayPal cofounder Ken Howery as his pick to be the US ambassador to Denmark, which has controlled the mammoth territory for more than 300 years.“For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Trump wrote.Greenland’s 836,330 square miles slightly exceed the 827,987 square miles that America gained with the Louisiana Purchase, a deal struck between then-President Thomas Jefferson and France.Trump’s acquisition also would be more than double the size of President James Polk’s 1845 annexation of the Republic of Texas, which included disputed regions that now are part of neighboring states.The proposed Trump administration move would top President Andrew Johnson’s 1867 Alaska purchase’s 591,000 square miles, too.Most of sparsely populated Greenland’s 56,000 residents are Inuit — related to other indigenous groups along the northernmost fringe of Canada and Alaska — and in principle have been given permission by Copenhagen under a 2009 law to sever ties should they so choose.In 2019, then-President Trump floated his interest in buying Greenland, which abuts North Atlantic shipping lanes and hosts important radar and weather installations, but the idea was swiftly shot down by Danish and Greenlandic officials.A year later, during the final year of Trump’s first term, aides within the White House and Treasury Department took a closer look at how to make a purchase happen — even identifying financial resources that could be used for the early phase of the project and crafting a blueprint for a diplomatic charm ...