Greenland’s Past, America’s Interest: What Trump Didn’t Understand

In the abandoned village of Qoornoq and the shelters of Nuuk, I saw the legacy of forced relocations and the struggle to preserve culture in the face of modernity. The question of independence wasn’t abstract—it was personal, urgent, and deeply tied to memory.

I travelled to Greenland after Donald Trump’s claim he wanted to buy the island reignited questions about its colonial past—and its future. I spoke to locals about what Denmark’s governance had left behind, and what they imagined their future might soon look like.