Skin Care Heir Has Trump’s Ear on Greenland

    Skin Care Heir Has 

Trump’s Ear on Greenland

M.A. Dworkin

     Greenland, Arctic Circle - President Donald Trump’s fixation with Greenland seems to be borne out of his friendship with billionaire Ronald Lauder, heir to the global cosmetics brand, Estee Lauder. The two wealthy fellow New Yorkers have known each other for 60 years.

     What is now being called, Trump’s Greenland Obsession, to somehow take over the Danish held country, has been percolating since his first term as President of the U.S. As the story goes around D.C. political circles, Trump called his national security advisor, John Bolton, down to the Oval Office in 2018, telling him that a prominent business man had just suggested the U.S. buy Greenland. 

    Bolton apparently discussed the Greenland proposition with Lauder, who was in the process of acquiring business interests in the Danish territory. After Lauder’s intervention, a White House team was put together to explore ways to increase U.S. influence in the vast Arctic territory controlled by Denmark.

     Although nothing substantial was done during his first term, in Bolton’s opinion, Trump’s renewed pursuit of Lauder’s idea during his second term amounts to Trump’s M.O. in handling many of his affairs. 

      “Bits of information that Trump hears from friends, he takes them as truth and you can’t shake his opinion,” Bolton claims, although it must be noted the ex-national security advisor and the 45th President have seen their better days.

     Nevertheless, Lauder’s proposal seems to have stirred Trump’s current hemisphere-conquering, imperialist ambitions, because eight years on, he is actively pushing to not just buy Greenland outright from the Danes, but taking the NATO country by force if necessary.

     In the meantime, as Trump ratchets up threats to seize Greenland in any way possible, Lauder has continued to acquire commercial holdings on the island. He is also part of a consortium who desires to access Ukrainian minerals which seems to coincide with Trump’s peace-making demand to acquire a share of the war-torn country’s resources.

     Lauder has stated that he met Trump in the 1960s when they went to the same prestigious business school, Wharton School of Finance and Commerce. After working for the family cosmetics business, Lauder served under President Ronald Reagan at the Pentagon, then as Ambassador to Austria, before running unsuccessfully for Mayor of NYC in 1989.

     When Trump won the Presidency in 2016, Lauder is on record as donating $100,000 to the Trump Victory fundraising committee. When Trump’s sanity was questioned in 2018, by CNNs Michael Wolff’s book, ‘Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,’ Lauder called him “a man of incredible insight and intelligence.”

     Trump’s obsession with obtaining Greenland, by any means, has endured despite open outrage by Denmark’s rulers and almost all of the NATO countries. Right after Trump won the Presidency in February 2025, Lauder came to his defense after the President publicly contemplated a military takeover of the world’s largest island.

     “Trump’s Greenland concept was never absurd - it was strategic,” Lauder wrote in the New York Post. “Beneath its ice and rock lies a treasure trove of rare-earth elements essential for AI, advanced weaponry, and modern technology. As ice recedes, new maritime routes are emerging, reshaping global trade and security,” Lauder went on. “With Greenland at the epicenter of great-power competition, the U.S. should seek a strategic partnership. I have worked closely with Greenland’s business and government leaders for years to develop strategic investments there.”

     Many who live on the Arctic island, which was colonized three centuries ago by the Danes, fear a new era of economic colonization at the hands of American billionaires.    

     Lauder, along with other billionaires, have apparently ploughed fortunes into Greenland business investments, although at this time, it is unclear what effect a U.S. takeover - by invasion, purchase or persuasion - might have on their undisclosed business interests in the Denmark territory.

     Tech investor Peter Thiel, of PayPal, has stated he has dreams of setting up a new post-nation state settlement, a “freedom city” in Greenland, while others talk openly of extracting valuable minerals from beneath the vast, icy territory.

     Some of the richest people in the world, including Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Michael Bloomberg, have begun making strategic investments, closely linked to the American technology sector, in the mineral-rich island, since Trump’s first term. Reportedly, they have invested heavily in a company called KoBold Metals which has looked for valuable rare earth minerals used in electronic devices through AI-powered exploration of the island, although KoBold, having invested over $13 million of high-quality exploration activity in 2022, denies having any current exploration claims that involved drilling in Greenland. 

     Lauder’s investment partners have expressed an interest to build a hydroelectric dam on Greenland’s largest lake. Their Greenland Investment Group has a new CEO in Josette Sheeran, a former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State to Condoleezza Rice and ex-director of the World Food Programme. 

     Denmark’s Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, has warned that any military action by one NATO member against another could very well have the possibility of breaking apart the NATO alliance. But Trump seems to be unmoved by all the negative rhetoric coming out of Europe.

     “We’re going to be doing something with Greenland,” he recently stated. “Either the nice way or the more difficult way.”

     After a recent White House meeting, the Danish Foreign Minister, Lars Lokke Rasmussen said: “We didn’t manage to change the American position. It’s clear that the President has this wish of conquering Greenland.”