Trump Envoy Jeff Landry Pushes for Greenland Bases as Danish Crisis Deepens

Jeff Landry, Donald Trump's special envoy for Greenland, arrived in Nuuk on May 18 for the Future Greenland conference. He landed on an island where Washington has already secured 92.5% control of the largest rare earth deposit outside China, proposed three new military bases designated as sovereign US territory, and is dealing with a Greenlandic government whose protecting power, Denmark, has spent eight weeks without a functioning government.

The two-track capture

Washington is working through two channels in Greenland: minerals and military access. Both use the same opening in the system.

The minerals moved first. Critical Metals Corp., a US-listed company backed by Export-Import Bank financing of up to $120 million, received Greenland government approval on May 5 to tighten its hold on the Tanbreez heavy rare earth deposit. The site has one of only two active mining licences among more than 140 exploration permits on the island, valid until 2050. First production is aimed at Q4 2028, with offtake already committed to US defence contractors.

The military track is a few weeks behind. US Northern Command's General Gregory Guillot set out the three-base plan in Senate testimony in March. Two sites, Narsarsuaq and Kangerlussuaq, both former US airfields, have been physically inspected by embassy officials. The "sovereign territory" label would move beyond the 1951 US-Denmark Defence Agreement by creating American jurisdictional enclaves on territory linked to Europe.

The key lever is timing. Greenland's investment screening law, which would have allowed authorities to block foreign acquisitions in strategic sectors, has been withdrawn from the spring parliamentary session and pushed to autumn 2026. Between April and May, three major mineral approvals went through without that filter.

Copenhagen's empty chair

Denmark cannot give a full response because it has no government empowered to give one. The country has been without a government since the March 24 election, its longest formation crisis since 1945. Coalition talks were paused on May 17, the day before Landry arrived.

Greenland's Premier Jens-Frederik Nielsen made the weakness explicit on May 12. Foreign and defence policy "is about the Kingdom of Denmark, meaning Greenland and Denmark together," and he wants a Danish government soon. Local media report that Danish representatives are not expected at the Future Greenland conference. Landry is meeting Greenland without Danish ministers in the room.

For a small state, this is the part that matters. Sovereignty is rarely lost in one dramatic vote. It is thinned out through licences, contracts, base access and legal wording agreed while the formal guardian of the file is absent.

Europe moves, but slowly

Europe has responded, but on a slower clock. NATO launched Arctic Sentry in February, a surveillance mission bringing allied patrols into a single framework, with German Eurofighters and expanded Nordic deployments. France opened a consulate in Nuuk and sent a trade minister to the same conference as Landry, alongside a geological mapping deal with the BRGM, France's national geological survey. The Nordic Council, the joint parliamentary body for Nordic cooperation, is coordinating Arctic policy around a proposed Canada-Nordic coalition.

None of that matches Washington's speed. The EU's Critical Raw Materials Act aims for 10% domestic extraction by 2030, but its earliest rare earth production date is late 2031 in Norway. The US already has contracts, financing and a mining licence.

Nielsen's narrow corridor

Nielsen has drawn clear red lines: no cession of territory, democratic control over any agreement, and an end to threats (BT, Nordjyske). At the same time, he is leaving doors open: more NATO responsibility and wider business cooperation.

A caretaker Danish prime minister cannot conclude binding agreements. The mineral deals, however, are already done, and the military working group continues to meet. If Denmark misses the May 21 coalition deadline without forming a government, the opening grows wider. Washington is moving in weeks. Europe is answering in years.