For a long time, few people bothered about where Greenland was located and that it was an administrative part of Denmark. It was Trump who, buoyed by his apparent success in Venezuela, decided to try his luck with Greenland. Trump had his own reasons for the interest in Greenland. It was strategically located, had ample reserves of rare earth minerals, and could emerge as a critical gateway to the arctic sea route once the ice sheets start to melt. Environmentalists are concerned that melting icebergs in Greenland would raise sea and ocean levels and drown scores of low-lying coastal towns globally. 

For Donald Trump, Greenland or Venezuela are just a veneer to conceal the real agenda. With his latest overtures on Greenland, Trump is trying to send across 3 very subtle messages to the world. Firstly, the message is that the US can extract its pound of flesh when it comes to protecting its national interests. Secondly, Trump wants to demonstrate to the world that a global order where the US calls the shots, is still infinitely better than a world where Russia or China calls the shots. But, above all, it is a message that the US will not let go the hegemony built by the dollar over the years so easily. 

Trump has no illusions about the fact that large part of US influence and its exorbitant privilege stems from the power of the Fed to print dollars. That was as long as the dollar continued to remain the preferred reserve currency for central banks, and the preferred currency for global trade. Both are changing. Countries are increasingly moving to trade in other currencies, especially the Chinese Yuan. What is more important is that for the first time in the last 30 years, central banks are holding more gold than US treasuries. That is clearly a sign that the world is getting comfortable without the dollar. Trump cannot afford the dollar losing its exorbitant privilege, which makes it so critical. 

We are not talking about the US taking over Greenland by force. That is not the main purpose of Trump anyways. He wants to issue a warning to the global order that it is too early to shift out of the dollar. Also, the US has sunk trillions of dollars in endless wars in South Asia, Middle East, West Asia and Ukraine. It is time for Trump to extract returns for all the money spent. After all, the US did not run up debt of $39 trillion just like that. It has been trying to play policeman to the world, and that has come at a cost. The writing is on the wall. Trump will not allow China and Russia to assert influence, nor will he allow any alternatives to the US dollar. Greenland may just be incidental in this whole game!