Trump's Greenland Deal Isn't What You Think | Scott Lucas interview

Scott Lucas (0:00)

Not another one. It's the Joe Politics Podcast. The flag that is over Greenland today is Denmark's flag, just like it was yesterday and the week before, and for many years before that. And the flag tomorrow will be Denmark's flag, and next year, and for many years after that.

What happened at the UN on Tuesday, and I can't stop smiling about it is, is that they have a ceremony to sign an agreement between Denmark, Greenland, and the United States over the security of Greenland. And Donald Trump, it's a historic deal. It's one of my mega deals I have done wonderfully, and Marco Rubio, ever the loyal henchman, the Secretary of State, it's a historic deal. And I'm going, yes, it is a very historic deal, Donald and Marco. It's very historic because it's the same deal that was signed in 1951, 75 years ago.

What happened yesterday at the UN was that security arrangements were confirmed, reaffirmed, especially by the Danes and by Greenland. Now, why therefore is there a fuss over signing something which was already in place? And of course, it's because Donald Trump, during his first term, wanted to take Greenland because he likes to take stuff. And as soon as he got in office second term, he and Marco and others started saying, we must have control of Greenland security, whether that meant Greenland as a 51st state, whether it meant Greenland as being independent, but under effectively a US territory or in the US sphere of influence, it had to be ours. And what has happened is after 20 months, Denmark and Greenland have fended that off with the help of some very effective US diplomats who realized that the Trump line was absolute rubbish from start to finish.

I think the first thing I probably should do is reaffirm that, is to explain why it's not much different from 1951 So in 1951, we're at the start, you know, early years of the Cold War. And the shortest route from the Soviet Union to hit the United States, and in fact, for the United States to hit the Soviet Union with missiles, for example, as well as warplanes, is to go over the Arctic Circle.

Now, guess where Greenland is? So when you want to put up an early warning system, or part of an early warning system, you want there to be a position in Greenland, just as the Americans had early warning systems positioned also in Canada.

So this treaty was signed in 1951 with Denmark, which establishes the American right to have multiple military bases in Greenland. So they had, you know, probably the best known was Tully, which was an early warning base, effectively. But they had, you know, several bases. They had more than 17,000 personnel there at the height of the Cold War.

The 2026 historic deal, what does it say? The US has the right to have multiple bases in Greenland. Absolutely no change. And Donald Trump's saying, we're going to open up two new bases in Greenland. And in fact, one of those two bases is a disused base from the Cold War that they're reopening. The story is, is that the Americans wound down their military personnel to around 1500 But they put it up there. All right. So another aspect of the 2026 agreement, Donald Trump's Golden Dome, because everything's golden in Trump world, even if it's team or gold, is that you are going to have this right to have this high altitude missile defense. Okay, great. You have high altitude missile defense. The 2004 amendment to the 1951 agreement during the Bush administration, the little Bush administration, said the United States at Tuliar base can have high missile, was a high altitude missile defense interceptors.

Okay, no change. Third provision, 2026 deal, historic deal. No adversary should be able to put up a military base in Greenland, not the Chinese, not the Russians. Well, in 1951, when the US and Denmark signed this deal, the adversary was the Soviet Union. And guess what? They didn't want the Soviet Union to have a military base in Greenland. So 75 years later, no change. The only significant change really in this agreement is the fact that Greenland was not part of the 1951 agreement. Greenland is an autonomous territory. It is part of Denmark. Its politicians would like to have greater autonomy. So they very much wanted to have their names on this agreement, which they got and which they're celebrating. And there's a provision in the agreement, which says if Denmark was to become independent, it would still honor the agreement, which is, I think, notable. It means that Greenland cannot become independent and then go outside the umbrella of not only Denmark and the United States, but NATO.