Donald Trump is the 45th and current US President. Before he entered politics, he was a television personality and a businessman with an estimated net worth of $3.1 billion, according to Forbes. The US leader is accustomed to making massive purchases such as hotels, skyscrapers, casinos and gold courses. Now it appears he might be looking to make a much bigger purchase: a country. But why does Mr Trump want to purchase Greenland from Denmark?

According to the Wall Street Journal, President Trump has “expressed interest” in buying the expansive icy territory of Greenland – and has requests his aides explore the possibility.

The Journal reported the President had raised the issue at a dinner last year, when he had heard Denmark was finding its financial support to the self-governing territory burdensome.

Greenland has a population size of roughly 56,000 and is a self-ruling part of the Kingdom of Denmark – meaning that its government decides on most domestic matters, while foreign and security policy is handled by Copenhagen.

The 73-year-old has reportedly even sought out the opinion of the White House counsel on this purchase – however, the Wall Street Journal wrote that his inquiries came “with varying degrees of seriousness”.

Social media became frenzied on Thursday night after reports surfaced about Mr Trump’s intention to buy Greenland – with many users expressing shock about the US President’s plans.

Why does Donald Trump want to buy Greenland?

Greenland is located roughly 3,025 miles from the United States.

Despite the distance, the US military already has a major airbase in the country: Thule Air Base.

The air base is the US military’s northernmost base in the world with around 600 personnel.

The US air base in Greenland is crucial to America as it acts as an early warning system with a reach of thousands of miles into Russian territory – meaning it can warn of any incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Another factor pushing Donald Trump to purchase Greenland is that China had shown interest in the island, with the Pentagon having derailed its attempts to finance airports there last year.

Despite the shocking concept of the US leader buying another country more than 3,000 miles from the United States, it is not the first time the superpower nation has floated the idea of buying Greenland.

In 1946, US President Harry Truman tried to buy Greenland from Denmark for $100 million (around £82.5 million).

In today’s money that would be worth roughly $1.3 billion (£1.07 billion).

However, President Truman’s offer was rebuffed.

Almost 30 years before this rejection in 1917, the US successfully acquired the Danish West Indies, rebranding them the US Virgin Islands.

Mr Trump is due to visit Denmark next month on his first official visit to the kingdom – however, Greenland is not believed to be on the agenda.

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