- Trump sends the stock market tumbling…
- What’s truly at stake in Greenland and Venezuela…
- 🧨 Are you aware of the looming Jan. 28th Ultimatum? Well, that’s the one date you MUST have circled on your calendar. Why is Jan. 28 so important to you?
Dear Reader,
The president has — once again — flustered the fish and fluttered the dovecotes.
CNBC, reporting yesterday:
- U.S. equities suffered big losses Tuesday after President Donald Trump intensified his rhetoric on Greenland, threatening to impose new tariffs on countries opposing the sale of the Danish territory to the United States.
- U.S. Treasury yields spiked and the U.S. dollar declined as Trump’s threat caused a flight from U.S. assets…
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 870.74 points, or 1.76%, to end the session at 48,488.59. The S&P 500 dipped 2.06% to settle at 6,796.86. The Nasdaq Composite slid 2.39%, closing at 22,954.32. It was the worst session since October for all three major averages.
- The day’s losses put the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq into negative territory for 2026… The Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) — Wall Street’s “fear gauge” — spiked to a high of 20.99.
Trump Sounds Like He Means It
Yesterday a reporter asked the president this question: “How far are you willing to go to acquire Greenland?”
“You’ll find out,” came the president’s stern response.
Meantime, the president addressed the Norwegian Prime Minister this way:
- I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America. Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a “right of ownership” anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also. I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO should do something for the United States. The World is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.
The president added on Truth Social that “Greenland is imperative for National and World Security. There can be no going back…”
Meantime, NBC News asked the president if he would seize Greenland by way of force.
“No comment,” came his cold response.
Is the president implementing the strategy of three-dimensional chess? Does a grand strategic vision glitter before him?
Or is he merely a berserker bull amok in a china shop?
None of the above? All of the above?
$5 Trillion in Natural Resources
I have documented Greenland’s abundance of rare earth minerals — rare earth minerals the United States requires.
Greenland boasts an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of rare earth deposits.
Thus Greenland is Earth’s eighth-largest container of such deposits.
Yet these deposits are very heavily untapped.
Almost no rare earth minerals came issuing out of Greenland last year.
That is because the extensive infrastructure required to extract them does not exist. Nor does the funding to carry on the business.
In all, Greenland may harbor up to $5 trillion in natural resources — some 20% of United States gross domestic product.
These resources include iron ore, graphite, zinc, copper, and gold. To these we must add potential oil and gas reserves located offshore.
Yet nearly all of it remains imprisoned under the tundra and under the water.
The president would prefer to dig it out.
Venezuela
I have also suggested that President Trump’s recent buccaneering in Venezuela related to rare earth minerals.
China’s hands are presently on them. And the president wants China’s hands off them. Specifically:
- China’s 2025 export restrictions on rare earths, imposed as retaliation for US tariffs, intensified global competition for alternative sources and demonstrated Beijing’s willingness to weaponize critical mineral supply chains when convenient. Western nations seeking to diversify away from Chinese processing looked to Venezuela, only to discover Chinese buyers already controlled extraction operations.
- This is strategic encirclement where China dominates both global processing infrastructure and alternative source extraction. Venezuela represents one of the few significant sources of coltan, rare earths, and related minerals outside direct Chinese territorial control, but Chinese operational presence at the mining sites makes these resources effectively Chinese-controlled despite Western Hemisphere location.
Meantime, Venezuela boasts some 300 billion barrels of crude oil deposits.
Its combined natural resource endowments are believed to approach $15 trillion — some 50% of United States gross domestic product.
A Combined 66% of U.S. GDP
Now imagine the United States commanding the combined natural resources of Greenland and Venezuela.
The Kobeissi Letter has imagined it:
- Sum this all up and the US could gain control of ~$20 trillion worth of natural resources.
- Most of these reserves are completely untapped due to lack of infrastructure and funding.
- This is worth roughly ~66% of US GDP and would increase the US’ land mass control by ~33%.
66% of the gross domestic product is plenty handsome — as is a 33% expansion of land mass control.
The 1803 Louisiana Purchase, by contrast, represented a mere 23% augmentation of United States land mass control.
All available evidence suggests the president is resolute to extend United States dominion over the Western hemisphere… and its vast natural resources.
Hence the “Donroe Doctrine,” so-called.
A Word of Caution
Will the president succeed?
The obstacles before him are considerable. Among these are Greenlanders themselves.
If the polling is to be believed, the bulk of them prefer Danish superintendence over American superintendence.
Venezuelans likewise appear disinterested in American superintendence over their affairs.
Yet who — or what — can turn back the president’s hemispheric ambitions?
“My own morality,” he argued recently.
“My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me,” he added.
Time will reveal if he is correct… or if he is incorrect.
I would merely remind the president that the gods are a jealous, wrathful lot.
There is one human conceit they will not abide.
It is called hubris.
Brian Maher
for Freedom Financial News
