Lower thirds:

00:02 Report by / Ralph Martin
00:24 Donald Trump / US President | January 9, 2026

Script:

This is Greenland. Just over 57-thousand people living on over two MILLION square kilometers. One of the least inhabited spaces on earth. Home to huge deposits of rare-earth metals. US President Donald  Trump says Russia and China want to take Greenland, and he's made no secret of his determination to acquire it first.

00:23 Trump SOT 
"I would like to make a deal, you know the easy way but if we don't do it the easy way, we're gonna do it the hard way."  

00:29
But the US already has a military base in Greenland and a decades-old treaty that allows it to scale up its military presence whenever it wants. And NATO says it will take steps to beef up Arctic security. 

00:46
Greenlanders themselves are very much against a US takeover. That would mean the US would be ruling over a hostile population - which could make any kind of military or business deals complicated or even dangerous. 

01:01
Then there's the question of those vast mineral reserves. The US wants to reduce its dependence on China, which controls many of the rare earth metals that are necessary for high-tech applications. ((MAP)) But much of Greenland's reserves are north of the Arctic circle, under sheets of ice more than a kilometer thick. Exploiting them is prohibitively expensive - one reason why global mining interests have not yet rushed in, despite Greenland courting foreign investment. It's much easier to mine this stuff elsewhere on the globe. 

01:38
Trump has talked about taking Greenland for years - suggesting there may be a different agenda. He told the New York Times why he wanted the US to 'own' it. 

01:50 Quote card
"That's what I feel is psychologically needed for success. I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can't do, whether you're talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document."

22:10
Trump's Greenland ambitions have set the territory's - and European leaders - on edge. Seizing territory from NATO ally Denmark could break up the alliance. With Trump seeming emboldened to act without restraint - or concern for how China and Russia could exploit a fractured NATO.

END