Why is Trump so keen on Greenland?

Read Andy’s column every week in the Western Morning News

- 

Danish military personnel in Nuuk, Greenland's capital, yesterday

(Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

THE irony of Greenland is that it isn’t green at all, of course. Most of it - between 80% and 85%, in fact - is covered by a massive ice sheet. Whiteland doesn’t sound as good, though, I'll admit.

Explorer Erik Thorvaldsson - also known as Erik the Red - who is credited by some with coming up with the name, apparently agreed.

Icelandic historical accounts of his life in the medieval era say he called it Greenland so it would encourage more people to go there because it had a ‘good name’

It might not have done the job with fellow Norsemen, but certainly seems to have worked on the other side of the Atlantic more than 1,000 years later, as Donald Trump is desperate to make it his own, apparently, and thinks acquiring it would make for a terrific ‘real estate’ deal.

But just why is Trump so keen on ‘buying’ Greenland (as if it was actually for sale)?