According to reports, Trump has expressed an interest in buying Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory for reasons not yet revealed. Although it is technically part of the North American continent by physical geography, it has been more culturally and politically associated with Europe.
The thing about Trump wanting to buy Greenland is that the island is not for sale. And even if, for some reason or another, the people of Greenland decide to become annexed to the United States, the Danes agree to the union, and America closes on the deal, there are still certain things that need to be considered and discussed. For one, Greenland is a socialist country.
How socialist? Well, private land ownership does not exist in Greenland: All the land is controlled by one of five local kommunes, a word that looks a lot like “commune” but is usually translated into English as the more innocuous “municipality.” Greenlanders neither own nor pay rent for the land they live on.
The ethic of common ownership extends to just about every enterprise in Greenland. The country’s largest fishing company is state-owned. Its largest retailer is state-owned. Its only seal tannery is state-owned. Air Greenland, its flagship carrier, is jointly owned by Greenland, Denmark, and the SAS Group, a semiprivate conglomerate that is itself partially owned by the Danish and Swedish governments.
Still, as Greenland's foreign minister said in a tweet, Greenland is "open for business, nor for sale". So we don't know whether Trump is actually serious about buying Greenland, but for the time being, Greenland has no plans on giving up their island.
(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)