| There are lots of theories to explain why President Donald Trump is so focused on Greenland. It is the world’s biggest island (with the Mercator projection map making it look even bigger), potentially making an American acquisition more attractive for the world’s most famous real-estate mogul. With NASA confirming that 2024 was the warmest year on record, Greenland’s receding icecap could reveal valuable minerals. And melting ice enables more maritime traffic through the Northwest Passage. The island also has strategic importance for US space policy. The Space Force, created by Trump during his first administration as the newest branch of the armed forces, operates a base on the coast of Greenland, Pituffik, which plays a critical role in monitoring satellites that travel over or near the North Pole. The northern location of Pituffik (pronounced bee-doo-FEEK) allows the US military to be in contact with polar orbiting satellites about a dozen times a day, according to the Pentagon’s 2024 Arctic Strategy. The Greenland facility supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance missions by tracking tens of thousands of objects daily. “Strategically, Pituffik SB’s ‘Top of the World’ vantage point enables Space Superiority,” the Space Force says on its website.  Pituffik Space Base Photographer: Thomas Traasdahl/AFP/Getty Images During most of the space age, satellite operators avoided polar routes, preferring to maximize their coverage via geostationary orbits over the equator, but the US and allies are paying more attention to the Arctic. Northrop Grumman last month announced the Space Force activated payloads aboard satellites the company made for Space Norway. And on Jan. 16, Washington and Oslo signed a Technology Safeguards Agreement allowing the launch of US satellites from Norway’s Andoya Spaceport in the Arctic. “Space infrastructure in the High North is of great strategic value to both Norway and NATO,” the Norwegian government said in a statement. Beijing is focusing more on that part of the globe, too, and although it doesn’t have any territory in the region, China says it’s a “near-Arctic state.” A Long March-6 rocket last month launched 18 of its Qianfan, or Thousand Sails, satellites into polar orbits, the latest installment in a planned constellation to compete with Starlink and others in low-Earth orbit. The Greenland base could certainly come in handy to keep track of those Chinese assets. However, there’s more uncertainty around Pituffik. There will be an election in the coming months that could provide the incumbent leader, Prime Minister Mute Egede, a mandate to push for independence from Denmark.  Mute Egede Photographer: MADS CLAUS RASMUSSEN/AFP Hence the greater interest among Republicans such as Representative Mike Haridopolos, a freshman congressman who represents the Florida district that includes Cape Canaveral. Haridopolos recently published an op-ed piece, “Take Donald Trump’s Greenland Gambit Seriously,” that Trump reposted on Truth Social. “As we have more and more reliance on satellites and we’re putting more and more of these operations in place, it would only be natural that you'd see an enhancement” of the US role with Greenland, Haridopolos said in an interview. “We’ll have to see what the Danes do,” Haridopolos said. “But in the end, at this point, I think that our relationship with Greenland will only get closer.” Trump didn’t mention Greenland in his Monday inauguration speech, but Denmark’s government isn’t expecting him to ease up on pressuring the NATO ally to make a deal. A day after the inauguration, Prime Minster Mette Frederiksen held a meeting with opposition leaders to discuss Trump’s latest threats. “We can’t have a world order where countries — no matter what they are named — can just take what they want,” Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said after the meeting. — Bruce Einhorn | 
