• Trump’s Greenland deal may be a blow to his ego and a win for US | Opinion
  • A sure way to cement your legacy as a president is through territorial expansion. Trump wants his name to reside among Presidents Jefferson and Polk who were responsible for growing U.S. borders.
  • Trump’s focus is on legacy building, not legitimate policy motivations
  • Any real Greenland deal will involve Trump taking an off-ramp

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§Trump’s Greenland deal may be a blow to his ego and a win for US | Opinion

§A sure way to cement your legacy as a president is through territorial expansion. Trump wants his name to reside among Presidents Jefferson and Polk who were responsible for growing U.S. borders.

Dace PotasUSA TODAYJan. 24, 2026, 4:02 a.m. ETHear this story

President Donald Trump has announced that there is a “framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland.” While I’d struggle to phrase that much more vaguely, it appears that Greenland has offered some minor concessions to the United States, stopping far short of transferring Denmark’s territory to the United States.

The Trump administration is framing this move as the goal all along, and insisting that we trust Trump’s “art of the deal” that has seriously uprooted our relationship with our allies in recent weeks. However, Americans should not take this framing at face value.

The president’s interest in acquiring Greenland was about his own push to build a legacy. The other arguments Trump has made with regard to Greenland have merit, but they are completely pretextual.

§Trump’s focus is on legacy building, not legitimate policy motivations

In his second term, Trump has become obsessed with how he will be remembered. He’s putting his name all over buildings, covering the interior of the White House in his signature gaudy gold look, planning to erect a new ballroom and, in this foreign policy saga, becoming obsessed with being awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.

The obsession is why he desperately wants to be labeled as the “peacemaker” despite provoking hostilities with our European allies.

There is legitimate merit behind a next-generation missile defense system in Greenland. Plenty of Americans probably have never looked at a top-down view of the Arctic Circle, but Greenland is perfectly centered beneath the trajectory for many Russian and Chinese missiles to reach the U.S.

Trump may very well care about this matter, and he has made it a defense of his actions.

However, such a missile defense system could surely be worked out in collaboration with Denmark, under an expanded U.S. military base framework upon what already exists there. If Trump were chiefly interested in the missile defense aspect, he would have been content with such an option from the outset, and I doubt he would have resorted to threatening Greenland militarily with invasion or our allies economically through tariffs.

His obsession with owning the territory suggests it is more in the vein of presidential ambition. A sure way to cement your legacy as a president is through territorial expansion: American schoolchildren learn about Thomas Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase, John Tyler’s acquisition of Texas and James Polk’s northwest expansion.

Territory is a tangible thing that history can point to as a presidential accomplishment. Trump wants his name to reside among these other presidents who were responsible for growing U.S. borders.

I have little doubt that the core motivation for this chapter of Trump’s presidency is that he wants to be known as the president who has done these things, rather than because he has a particular attachment to the actual merits in themselves.

§Any real Greenland deal will involve Trump taking an off-ramp

The Trump framework, which we do not yet have complete details on as of this writing, is expected to include initiatives related to expanding U.S. missile defense sites in Greenland territory, among other potential military and economic proposals that are still being negotiated.

Even falling short of acquiring territory, Trump accomplishes a few things with the anticipated framework. The expansion of American military sites on the island is, in a vacuum, a net positive for the United States. As far as legacy building, if Trump is able to produce an advanced missile defense system in Greenland, that is no small accomplishment for him to take credit for.

Such a compromise marks a serious off-ramp for Trump, and one we should be glad he took. Rising tensions with our European allies have sent markets into concern, and have further pushed our allies away from being able to rely on America.

The response from our European allies is a cost we will continue to bear into the future. There were far better ways to go about accomplishing the Greenland aim than the Trump lunacy of the past several weeks. The idea that deals for resources and expanded military bases couldn’t be reached without the threat of invasion is ridiculous, and engaging in such behavior is certainly not worth the cost against our reputation.

While it is good that Trump decided to walk back his dangerous direction with regard to Greenland, and the establishment of an advanced missile defense system on Greenland would be a positive, our path to get here has put unnecessary strain on America’s relationships with our allies, and Trump’s erratic temperament has no business leading the United States in these matters. Especially if it’s all for his legacy.

Dace Potas is an opinion columnist for USA TODAY and a graduate of DePaul University with a degree in political science.

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