Carla Sands, former U.S. ambassador to Denmark during the Trump administration, confirmed during an exclusive interview with The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy that she was involved in the talks during the Trump administration for the U.S. to purchase the territory of Greenland, explaining how such a move would be a valuable American security interest.
Greenland, the world’s largest island, is a North American island autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.
While Greenland has been attempted to be purchased by the U.S. for decades, then-President Donald Trump revived the idea in 2019, confirming media reports at the time that he was interested in purchasing the territory, specifically citing the territory’s access to natural resources.
Sands, a native Pennsylvanian who served as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark from 2017-2021, confirmed to Leahy on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show that she participated in the 2019 talks pertaining to the purchase of Greenland.
“I was involved in that,” Sands (pictured above) said.
Sands went on to explain that America’s interest in purchasing Greenlands stems from a security standpoint, noting how U.S. adversaries, including China and Russia, have beefed their presence near the territory, which Sands pointed out is “part of our hemisphere”
“There are other ways to get it done where we make it more secure. Remember, [Greenland] is just off of our northeast coast. It’s part of our hemisphere. Russia has a lot of subs around there and there’s been a lot of activity by Russia. And then, of course, China, which is trying to take over the world,” Sands explained.
Sands defended the interest in purchasing Greenland by pointing out how the Caribbean country of Cuba has turned into a “listening post” for U.S. adversaries.
“Think of Cuba. Cuba’s closer to the U.S., but the fact that President Biden’s allowing them to have this listening post, which means they’re collecting, but they’re also doing more military stuff together. That’s a danger on our back door. Remember, Russia used to be very involved in Cuba and look what happened. So we don’t want a repeat of that,” Sands said.
Sands also noted how Greenland is home to some of the largest deposits of rare earth minerals, which is another justification for America’s interest in the territory.
“Greenland has a lot of rare earth minerals. We don’t want China to control rare earths in our hemisphere…We need to make sure that they’re secure from bad actors so we don’t have a threat on our doorstep,” Sands said.
Sands said an adversary presence in Greenland would be comparable to a “stranglehold” in Canada.
“It would be like them having a stranglehold in Canada. Let’s just not let that happen,” Sands said.
Watch the full interview here:
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Background Photo “Greenland” by Jensbn. CC BY-SA 3.0.
