The Origins of Trump’s Greenland Obsession

Donald Trump’s pursuit of Greenland started with an intelligence briefing in the Situation Room. It was early 2018, and rising Russian submarine activity and the increased presence of Chinese vessels in the Arctic represented a security threat, Trump was told. At that meeting, according to a senior White House official at the time and a second person familiar with the conversation, Trump became preoccupied with the idea that the U.S. required a bigger and more permanent presence in Greenland,...