The Greenland Purchase
Allegedly, President Trump has inquired about buying Greenland from Denmark. Most people mock this idea, but in fact I don't see anything wrong with it in principle. After all, a large portion of the current United States's land area was acquired via four different sales: the Louisiana Purchase, the Adams-Onis treaty (for Florida), the Gadsden Purchase, and Alaska. Admittedly, the last of these was over 150 years ago, but otherwise they were similar to Greenland in being large (except Gadsden), sparsely populated areas that offered strategic advantages. Since Denmark granted Greenland a significant degree of self-rule in 1979 and again in 2008, and since the population of Greenland are largely Inuits rather than ethnic Danes, the national allegiance of Greenland would not seem to matter much to its inhabitants. The security of the island would surely be better protected by the United States. From a Danish standpoint, apart from national pride, i...