Obsessed with Greenland? You, too, may have the wrong map

How maps are drawn can shape the world views of leaders — and the arc of history.

- Andreas Kluth

At some point in his life, Mr. Donald Trump looked at a world map and saw something he wants — something that, as president of the US, he now says he will take "one way or the other." It's Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, one of America's closest allies.

"I love maps," Mr. Trump once explained. "And I always said: 'Look at the size of this. It's massive. That should be part of the United States.'"

And so an obsession began, one that is now turning into a spectacle somewhere between political farce and geopolitical crisis, with an unusual — and uninvited — American delegation touring Greenland, to "check it out," as one of the visitors, Vice-President J.D. Vance, put it.

The original plan was for his wife Usha to take one of their sons to a famous dog-sled race, while high-ranking officials visited other destinations in parallel. That caused outrage in both Denmark and Greenland, which just held an election and is busy forming a new government. The Danish Prime Minister complained about "unacceptable pressure," the outgoing Greenlandic leader called the visit "highly aggressive" and meant "to demonstrate power over us," while his likely successor agreed that it "once again shows a lack of respect."

So the trip was shortened and diverted. Instead of mushing and sightseeing, the Vance entourage dropped in on an isolated US space base that monitors the skies for incoming ballistic missiles. Even so, the damage is done and keeps getting worse, because President Trump has made clear that he bigly covets that big landmass, roughly as Russia has long claimed Ukraine or as China eyes Taiwan.