The United States should buy Greenland, and Europe should pay for it.
European leaders have rushed to denounce President Trump’s renewed interest in Greenland, insisting the Arctic territory is “not for sale.” French President Emmanuel Macron declared, “Greenland is not for sale, just as Antarctica or the high seas are not for sale.” German officials and others have echoed the same line. This rhetoric is meant to shut down debate, not resolve reality.
The United States is not proposing a symbolic land grab. The United States could pursue a lawful transaction that would settle outstanding European obligations while securing a vital national security asset.
During World War I, the United States financed the Allied war effort through massive Treasury loans authorized under the Liberty Loan Acts. These were not gifts. They were debts. In the 1920s, those obligations were formalized through bilateral funding agreements ratified by the U.S. Congress. No treaty or statute has ever canceled them.
The Hoover Moratorium of 1931 temporarily suspended payments. It did not forgive the debt. Under international law, sovereign debt does not expire simply because it is inconvenient to repay.
Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom all remain legally obligated. Belgium’s debt was codified in the 1925 Agreement for the Funding of the Debt of Belgium to the United States, approved by Congress in 1926. France’s obligations were formalized in the Mellon-Bérenger agreement the same year. None were discharged by law. The United States remains a lawful creditor.
U.S. government records show the scale of the World War I debt problem Europe still prefers not to discuss. In the British funding terms presented to Congress, the U.K. issued bonds to the United States with a funded principal of $4.6 billion under its 1923 funding agreement, with interest set at 3% initially and 3.5% thereafter. Belgium’s own settlement paperwork describes $171.78 million in pre-armistice debt funded without interest and $246 million in post-armistice bonds funded on terms modeled on Britain’s schedule, with total Belgian principal stated at $377,029,570.06 as of June 15, 1925. France’s own settlement, ratified in 1926, recognized roughly $4.23 billion in debt to the United States on a 5% interest basis.
If the World War I debts owed to the United States are rolled forward under their original treaty interest structures, assuming no payments after the Hoover Moratorium, and then expressed in 2026 dollars using standard CPI adjustments, the implied balances are enormous. Britain’s obligation rises to roughly $2.9 trillion, France’s to approximately $2.6 trillion, Italy’s to about $825 billion, and Belgium’s to roughly $130 billion. These figures are estimates derived from congressionally ratified funding agreements and standard financial compounding, not an official Treasury accounting, but they illustrate the scale of obligations that were never legally forgiven, only ignored.
Macron says Greenland isn’t for sale, but with a century of unpaid war debt, France may be.
In exchange for permanent U.S. sovereignty, or a binding long-term arrangement granting full civil, mineral, and security rights, the United States could cancel Europe’s World War I-era debts in full. Europe would walk away with a clean balance sheet. The United States would secure the Arctic anchor it needs to deter Russian and Chinese expansion.
European officials warn this would undermine NATO. That argument is backwards. NATO exists to defend the West, not to preserve unresolved debts or strategic ambiguity. If Europe genuinely fears Russia in the Arctic, placing Greenland under U.S. control strengthens NATO’s northern flank and enhances deterrence.
The reality is that the United States already controls Greenland’s defense. Under the 1951 defense agreement with Denmark, U.S. forces operate key installations that have supported missile warning and space surveillance for decades. Buying Greenland would align legal sovereignty with existing military reality.
Trump understands that geography does not change and debt does not disappear. America paid to save Europe once. Europe never fully paid America back.
Now the choice is simple. The United States can secure Greenland peacefully, legally, and permanently. Europe can settle its century-old tab.
Buy Greenland. Make Europe pay for it.
Michael DeSantis is a Senior Advisor in the Trump Administration.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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