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A statement on Greenland

A statement on Greenland

Last updated on: January 11, 2026 at 11:44 am by Dan Peterson

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A statement on Greenland 2026-01-11T11:44:55-07:00 Dan Peterson

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Modern peasants wandering freely on the grounds — much, much more vast than shown here — of the Palace of Versailles (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

Test your historical knowledge! Can you identify the speakers behind the following five quotations?

“I have an Article 2 [of the Constitution] where I have the right to do whatever I want as president.”
“I’m not talking about money for Greenland yet. I might talk about that, but right now we are going to do something on Greenland whether they like it or not. . . . I would like to make a deal, you know, the easy way. But if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way.”
[In answer to the question of whether there are any limits on his international power:] “Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
“L’État, c’est moi.” [“I am the state.”]
“Die Partei ist Hitler. Aber Hitler ist Deutschland, wie Deutschland ist Hitler!” [“The Party is Hitler. But Hitler is Germany, as Germany is Hitler!”]

The answers can be found at the bottom of this blog entry.

The flag of Denmark (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

I call your attention to an article from 2015 that provides useful insight into and an important analogy for several current headline stories: “Donald Trump’s Eminent Domain Love Nearly Cost a Widow Her House: Trump has had no compunction about benefiting from the coercive power of the state to kick innocent Americans out of their homes.”

I’m sorry, folks. For several years — for most of this blog’s life, actually — I have, with demonstrably few exceptions, successfully resisted the temptation to discuss politics here, even though one of my initial reasons for launching the blog was, precisely, to discuss politics. I soon learned that my political views, which are conservative, limited-government, pro-life, strongly oriented to free markets (to the point, almost, of flat-out libertarianism), in favor of a strict-constructionist and originalist jurisprudence, committed to federalism, skeptical of gender-reassignment surgery, and so forth, but which have never warmed me up to Mr. Donald J. Trump, were alienating some folks who might otherwise have supported the Interpreter Foundation. So I backed off, very reluctantly and unhappily, from commenting publicly on politics.

I reasoned that my advocacy of the Gospel and my involvement with the Interpreter Foundation (a) were of more fundamental importance than my political opinions and that (b) I can have more influence on religious issues (limited as my influence may be) than on political matters. Moreover, I thought analogously of my experience as a missionary in Switzerland from 1972 through 1974, during the Vietnam War. Occasionally, people whom we were attempting to teach would attack American foreign policy or criticize the U.S. record on civil rights, or something of that sort. I always tried to change the subject. I was not there, I thought, as an emissary of the United States but, rather, as a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ and of his Church.

The Interpreter Foundation is and will remain apolitical and nonpartisan, and neither my political views nor those of any other of its writers or officers have any real bearing on its mission. As it is, because of my admitted lack of enthusiasm for Mr. Donald J. Trump, I’ve been labeled a “woke” liberal, a socialist, a Marxist, and even a Communist, and — I’m not making this up! — I’ve been accused of supporting socialist dictators and Somali frauds, favoring illegal immigration, endorsing drug cartels and drug runners, and sympathizing with modern Gadianton robbers. You can easily understand why I don’t want to see Interpreter tainted with such accusations, stupid and inaccurate though they are.

I’m not happy about opening the door again to such abusive and inaccurate allegations, and I’m certainly reluctant to expose the Interpreter Foundation once more to completely unjustified collateral damage. And I don’t intend a return to political blogging more generally. But the current threats against Denmark and Greenland simply don’t permit me to remain silent. Seizing the territory of another sovereign country, and especially of an historical ally — and doing so without provocation — is, for me, a clear line in the sand that should not be crossed.

The flag of Greenland (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Obtaining Greenland by coercion or force would not only be immoral and classically imperialistic, but, as Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) recently put it, a specimen of “weapons-grade stupidity.” It would, among other things, destroy NATO, the most successful treaty organization, perhaps, in the history of the world. Weakening NATO has long been one of Vladimir Putin’s most cherished goals. Destroying it altogether was, until very recently, something of which he could scarcely even dream. It would be an unforced error that would hand Putin and Xi Jinping an unearned victory of monumental, world-historical proportions.

To make it clear, and to repeat what I’ve already written here: If Denmark chooses, without having been coerced, to hand Greenland over to the United States, I will be fine with that. (The chances of such a handover, though, seem to me to be decreasing day by day.) If Greenland freely chooses to join the United States, I will be fine with that. I’m fine with a purchase. I don’t really think that there’s much of a need for our owning Greenland, but fine. I’m okay with the offer of a carrot. I’m not okay with the threat of a stick.

If, perish the thought, we do end up taking Greenland by military force, I will most definitely be out on the streets to protest the seizure. I stand with Ukraine against Putin’s Russia, and now, to my great surprise, I find that I may need to stand with Denmark and Greenland, as well — and, unbelievably, against my own government. I don’t have much of a voice, but I do have a voice, and I feel morally obliged to raise it.

I have written to my two senators (Mike Lee and John Curtis) about this matter, and to my representative in Congress (who, in my case, happens to be Mike Kennedy). If you live in Utah and you agree with me, I urge you to do the same. If you agree with me and live elsewhere, please contact your representatives and tell them how you feel. If, though, you favor the military seizure of Greenland, I hope that you will sign up as soon as possible at your nearest military recruiting office.

Answers to the questions at the beginning of this blog entry: 1) Mr. Donald J. Trump 2) Mr. Donald J. Trump 3) Mr. Donald J. Trump 4) Ascribed to the French monarch Louis XIV 5) Rudolf Hess, introducing Adolf Hitler at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally. He was stating the so-called Führerprinzip, the “leader principle,” according to which Adolf Hitler’s will overrode all existing laws and represented the ultimate authority of the German nation.

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