The United States needs Greenland for its national security and natural resources. But it doesn’t need to actually own Greenland; Trump can easily negotiate without taking full control of the island .
It can just lease the parts it needs. After all, less than 1 percent of Greenland is inhabited, and approximately 80 percent is covered by an impenetrable ice sheet
A lease agreement modeled after the U.S. arrangement at Guantánamo Bay in 1903. would allow Denmark to retain formal sovereignty over the territory while granting the U.S. "complete jurisdiction and control" for a specified period (potentially 99 years or indefinitely).
•For Greenland: The lease would involve substantial annual payments (potentially billions of dollars), which would provide the island with the financial independence it needs from Danish subsidies.
Which would still be much cheaper for the US than buying the island outright. Why pay billions for useless ice-covered tracts of land, when all that’s really needed are some strategic coastal tracts?
•For Denmark: It allows the Danish government to save face by technically maintaining its "territorial integrity" while offloading the massive financial burden and geopolitical headache the island has become for decades , as Moscow and Beijing have increased their activity in the region, most of that is elsewhere in the Arctic, with no current spike in activity near Greenland.
Danish officials also reiterated that Greenland was not for sale, but also committed to working with Washington on bolstering the U.S. security presence on the island and potentially increasing U.S. investments in mining.
The negotiations will take place in the next few weeks between EU and the US