Center Square

President Donald Trump called on Congress to enact his “Great Healthcare Plan,” in a bid to lower drug prices and insurance premiums.
The plan proposes sending money directly to consumers, rather than insurers. Trump has said for months that he wants to send money to Americans, not insurance companies.
“Obamacare was designed to make insurance companies rich,” Trump said in a video message announcing the plan. “I want to end this flagrant scam and put extra money straight into the healthcare savings account in your name, and you go out and buy your own healthcare, and you’ll make a great deal, you’ll get better healthcare for less money – that way you can choose the care that is right for your family.”
Trump’s plan includes codifying the Trump administration’s Most Favored Nations deals with prescription drug companies. The White House has secured deals from 16 of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world to offer at least some of their prescription drugs at lower prices in the United States, Trump has said.
Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK, Novartis and Merck & Co. are among several companies that have agreed to offer most-favored-nations prices to the United States.
Health and Human Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said the deals make up “95% of drugs” sold in the U.S.
“So instead of Americans paying the highest drug prices in the world, which we have for decades, we will now be paying the lowest cost paid by any other nation,” Trump said in an announcement on social media. “That’s what we’re going to pay, and the American people will get the savings.”
The plan will also make more pharmaceutical drugs available for over the counter purchases.
Trump said prices for some prescription drugs could decrease by 300-500% starting this month.
The Great Healthcare Plan also aims to target insurance companies and reduce premiums. The plan funds a cost-sharing reduction program for healthcare plans that would save taxpayers $36 billion and reduce Affordable Care Act premiums by over 10%, the White House said, citing figures from the Congressional Budget Office.
The Congressional Budget Office did not immediately respond to The Center Square’s request for comment confirming the White House’s figure.
“It fully funds a long-neglected part of the law known as the Cost Sharing Reduction program,” Trump said. “This measure alone should cut premiums on the most popular Obamacare plans.”
Trump’s plan is also designed to increase transparency for healthcare providers and insurers who accept Medicare or Medicaid. The plan requires insurance companies and healthcare providers to prominently post their pricing, fees and profits taken out of premiums.
“It will require any hospital or insurer who accepts Medicare or Medicaid to prominently post all prices of their place of business so that you are never surprised, and you can easily shop for a better deal or better care – and you’re going to end up doing both, you’re going to get a better deal and better care,” Trump said.
Trump said he wants Congress to take the measure quickly.
“I’m calling on Congress to pass this framework into law without delay – we have to do it right now so that we can get immediate relief to the American people, the people I love,” the president said

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota if attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers continue.
“If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump wrote on social media Thursday morning.
The Insurrection Act is a law that allows the president to deploy the National Guard and active duty forces inside the United States. Protests have erupted throughout Minnesota after the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent.
The Insurrection Act was used by Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy to enforce school desegregation. President George H.W. Bush invoked the act in response to the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
In June, Trump deployed almost 5,000 National Guard troops and Marines to respond to anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles. However, he did not formally invoke the Insurrection Act. Expenses related to the deployments totaled almost $134 million, according to the Pentagon.
On Wednesday night, a federal law enforcement agent shot a Venezuelan national in the leg, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The shooting occurred after a federal agent conducted a “targeted traffic stop” in Minneapolis. Shortly after the subject fled the scene, a federal officer caught up.
While in a struggle with the original subject, two additional subjects came out of a nearby apartment and attacked the law enforcement officer.
“Fearing for his life and safety as he was being ambushed by three individuals, the officer fired a defensive shot to defend his life,” DHS wrote. “The initial subject was hit in the leg.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey criticized the officer’s actions and said he has seen conduct from ICE that is “intolerable.”
“No matter what led up to this incident, the situation we are seeing in our city is not sustainable,” Frey said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz condemned Trump’s actions and called for Minnesotans to remain peaceful.
“What Donald Trump wants is violence in the streets,” Walz wrote. “Minnesota will remain an island of decency, of justice, of community, and of peace.” Don’t give him what he wants.”

Maine leaders are bracing for a possible influx of ICE agents into the state’s two largest cities as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.
Democratic Gov. Janet Mills released a video Wednesday night saying she has “tried unsuccessfully” to confirm whether any operations in Portland and Lewiston are planned by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but said she is coordinating with local governments and state and local law enforcement to prepare for possible immigration raids.
“If they come here, I want any federal agents – and the President of the United States – to know what this state stands for,” Mills said. “We stand for the rule of law. We oppose violence. We stand for peaceful protest. We stand for compassion, for integrity and justice.”
Mills also urged Mainers considering protesting to do so peacefully, with President Donald Trump considering invoking the federal Insurrection Act to crackdown on anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where clashes between police and residents over the Jan. 7 shooting death of Renee Good are becoming increasingly violent.
“For those of you who may consider protesting, I fully support your right to do so, and I urge you to do so peacefully – to meet any hostility with reserve and resolve,” Mills said. “Know this: Maine will not be intimidated, and we will not betray the values that make us who we are.”
Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline issued a separate statement saying he expects ICE enforcement operations in his city “soon” and urged residents and businesses “to know their rights and have a plan of action if ICE stops them in the street, visits their home, or visits their business.”
“I understand that this is an unsettling time for many of our residents,” Sheline, a Democrat, said. “Lewiston is a strong city and we care about our community and each other. Please check on your neighbors and stay safe.”
Portland Mayor Mark Dion, a Democrat, said his city is “anxious and fearful” about the possibility that the Trump administration will send ICE agents to his city. He warned against a heavy-handed paramilitary operation.
“There is no evidence of unchecked criminal activity in our community requiring a disproportionate presence of federal agents,” Dion said in a statement. “While we respect the law, we challenge the need for a paramilitary approach to the enforcement of federal statutes. The consequence of law enforcement should not be chaos and violence, which only results in making Portland less safe.”
None of the statements provided details about the pending ICE operations, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
ICE has ramped up its enforcement actions in Minnesota in response to a growing scandal over alleged Medicaid fraud in that state tied to some in the Somali community. Federal officials also recently raided a Maine nonprofit founded by a Somali-American as part of a potential fraud investigation.
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, but said he shares MIll’s concern about recent “rumors of imminent federal law enforcement activities” in the state and urged Mainers to report any “lawlessness done cloaked in the cause of federal law enforcement” by reporting misconduct.
“Given the videos and headlines we have seen from operations conducted in other states – many of them reckless, heartless, and irreversibly destructive – I share the same worries many of you have,” King said.

Following oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday on whether males should participate in female sports, a medical group is “optimistic” that biological sex will be affirmed by the court in upcoming days.
Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of Do No Harm, told The Center Square that Tuesday’s “oral arguments were about protecting girls’ safety in women’s sports and confronting the biological truth: sex is binary.”
Do No Harm is a group of “physicians, nurses, medical students, patients, and policymakers focused on keeping identity politics out of medical education, research, and clinical practice,” as stated on its website.
Goldfarb told The Center Square that “hundreds of activists, students, doctors, and athletes showed up in droves to the Supreme Court [Tuesday] to support the common sense protections put in place by Idaho and West Virginia.”
The Supreme Court will rule on challenges to Idaho’s and West Virginia’s bans on biological males playing in girls’ and women’s sports.
“We are optimistic that the Court will affirm the reality of sex differences, reject the myths of the gender cult, and ensure athletics and locker rooms remain safe for girls,” Goldfarb said.
“Scientific evidence proves that, even before puberty, boys have a physical advantage in strength and speed over girls of the same age,” he said. “No amount of medical interventions or cultural pressure can change that fact.
“The ACLU’s claim that puberty blockers eliminate a prepubescent boy’s competitive advantage has been repeatedly disproven,” Goldfarb said. “In fact, when asked by Justice [Samuel] Alito, the ACLU couldn’t even define the difference between a man and woman.”
“Continuing to push the lie that cross-sex hormones mitigate the physical advantages boys have over girls is to ignore the truth of biology,” Goldfarb said.
Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen likewise told The Center Square he is “optimistic” that “we’re going to win this thing.”
As The Center Square previously reported, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday heard arguments from two cases – Little v. Hecox and B.P.J. v. West Virginia –t hat concerned “whether biological males can participate in women’s and girls’ sports.”
“The justices weighed whether the sports bans violate the Constitution or Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination,” The Center Square reported.
Kathleen Hartnett, a lawyer representing a transgender athlete in Idaho’s case, said there is not a competitive advantage between cisgender and transgender people in sports when hormones are controlled.
“The testosterone is the advantage on this record,” Hartnett said. “This person had mitigated testosterone.”
Do No Harm has an extensive history working to protect children from transgenderism, especially by disproving various beliefs associated with the ideology.
For instance, in June 2025 Do No Harm released a report debunking the idea that gender-affirming care for minors improves quality of life and mental health or that it decreases suicides, as The Center Square reported.
The HHS released a review in May 2025 with similar findings, namely that “the science and evidence do not support [the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries], and the risks cannot be ignored.”

In an attempt to distance themselves from the Feeding Our Future fraud, Minnesota politicians vowed to return their tainted donations, but an investigation by The Center Square found that some did not follow through with their promises.
Others, including the state’s Attorney General Keith Ellison — the state’s top law-enforcement official — and several lawmakers and candidates who failed to win office, took a significant amount of time to return the money or refused to provide documentation that the money was returned or donated elsewhere.
The returned donations, which were all to Democrats, were mostly tied to an initial wave of indictments for the fraud scheme in September 2022. Since then, the number of people accused of stealing about $300 million of federal aid money has nearly doubled.
State Sen. John Hoffman, who received eight questionable donations that totaled about $3,300, sent all of the money to the U.S. Marshals Service because the donated money might have been obtained through fraud.
“It was the right thing to do,” he told The Center Square.
But the newer indictments did not garner the same expeditious response from other politicians who received fraud-linked donations, The Center Square found.
Minnesota is flush with fraud accusations that have extended beyond the now-defunct Feeding Our Future, an organization that facilitated the theft of federal money that was meant to provide food to children. Last year, federal prosecutors also accused more than a dozen people of stealing aid for housing and autism services.
The scandal put a spotlight on the state’s large Somali community because its members constitute the bulk of those who have been accused of and convicted for the fraud.
President Donald Trump last month referred to Somali immigrants in Minnesota as “garbage.” His administration recently sent more than 2,000 federal agents to the state to arrest certain immigrants for deportation, and the administration has cut off funds for programs that had significant fraud.
“There’s strong ties between the attorney general and members of the legislature and the Somali community,” Minnesota state Rep. Kristin Robbins, a Republican who leads a committee of legislators that is investigating the fraud, told The Center Square. “We felt, at a minimum, that anyone who has been indicted for fraud, those donations should be returned.”
The Center Square scoured five years of campaign contribution data for donations from people connected to the fraud and is reporting campaign contributions for donors only where names could be verified with some combination of ages, addresses and/or employment.
Ellison relents under scrutiny
Last year, Robbins pressed Ellison about potentially spurious donations he had received.
Ellison had already returned a $2,500 campaign contribution to a donor who was indicted in September 2022 for the food aid fraud. The donor, Liban Alishire, later pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering and awaits sentencing, court records show. He has agreed to repay more than $700,000 of stolen aid.
But Ellison rejected Robbins’ scrutiny of donations Ellison received after meeting with people connect to the fraud schemes in December 2021. A recording of that meeting was published last year by the Center of the American Experiment, a group that advocates for conservative policies in Minnesota.
In a letter to Robbins in June 2025, Ellison said he “rejected offers of campaign support” in that meeting.
But shortly after the 2021 meeting Ellison’s campaign received four donations on the same day of $2,500 apiece. One of the donors was Gandi Mohamed, who was charged with several crimes in 2024 for allegedly participating in the fraud scheme and laundering money from it.
As a result of the fraud committee’s scrutiny, Ellison returned the donation from Mohamed in recent months, Robbins said.
A spokesperson for Ellison said all four donations were given by the campaign “to a fund administered by the federal government,” but he declined to say when or provide documentation that supports the statement.
Ellison’s campaign finance records for last year that might document the transfers are not yet available.
Other campaign disclosures show that Mohamed also contributed $1,000 to the campaign of Farhio Khalif, who lost a state Senate election in 2022. Additionally, Khalif received a donation from Ikram Mohamed, a sibling of Gandi Mohamed who faces numerous charges related to the fraud, court records show.
Ikram Mohamed attended the 2021 meeting with Ellison, the Center of the American Experiment reported.
Campaign finance records for Khalif do not indicate the contributions were returned. Khalif did not respond to a request to comment for this article.
Other statehouse campaigns
In January 2022, when federal search warrant documents related to the Feeding Our Future scandal became publicly available, state Sen. Omar Fateh moved quickly to return donations from people who were explicitly named in the documents or who were otherwise linked to the fraud, campaign disclosures show.
His campaign committee indicated in an annual finance report that it sent back 11 contributions from 2021 worth $11,000, or about a quarter of his total donations that year.
But there were two other $1,000 donations he did not return, records show: One from Ikram Mohamed and one from her husband Shakur Abdisalam, who both were indicted for the fraud scheme in 2024.
Fateh did not respond to requests to comment for this article. Communications between his campaign and the state’s Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board indicate Fateh intended to return the donations by check to the donors, and it’s unclear whether those checks were cashed.
Former state Rep. John Thompson received two donations from Hanna Marekegn in 2022, who was among the first people charged with crimes for the Feeding Our Future scheme. He lost a primary election that year and did not submit a year-end campaign finance report, so it’s unclear whether he returned the donations. He couldn’t not be reached to comment.
Senate candidate Sahra Odowa received a $1,000 contribution in 2020 from Abdiaziz Farah, who was sentenced to 28 years in prison for his role in the fraud scheme. Campaign disclosure records do not indicate Odowa returned any contributions.
State Rep. Mohamud Noor returned a $320 contribution directly to Liban Alishire not long after Alishire was indicted in 2022.
Robbins said she and other lawmakers are uncovering new avenues of fraud — related to services for adults and non-emergency medical transportation — and that the investigations in her state are likely to help uncover similar crimes elsewhere.
“Minnesota is the canary in the coal mine, and we are starting to see connections and similar patterns in other states,” she said.

A new documentary aims to shine a light on what happens when American citizens are victimized by the personal injury lawsuit system.
“Behind the Settlement: What Really Happens After You Hire a Billboard Lawyer” was produced by Protecting American Consumers Together, a national organization it says is “dedicated to standing up for plaintiffs, victims and consumers to ensure they can access a fair and transparent legal process.”
PACT released the documentary January 13. It tells the stories of people who say they were victimized by the personal injury system.
PACT Executive Director Lauren Zelt says the documentary is important because the three people highlighted are important.
“No one should have to suffer because they are simply trying to access our legal system,” Zelt told Legal Newsline. “PACT was created to protect consumers while ensuring fair access to the justice system for all.
“Unfortunately, Americans are harmed every day by the ambulance-lawyer mill that leaves them worse off than they were before an incident occurred. These types of stories have become all too common in the United States.”
The documentary follows Debra, a mother from Illinois who was seriously injured in a car accident and says her personal injury lawyer took her settlement. It also tells the story of Jeff, a consultant from Texas who describes how, after his car accident, his personal injury lawyer took control of his medical care, sending him to what he believes were needless appointments to inflate the size of his lawyer’s payday.
And it examines the broader impact of the personal injury system through Dave, a business owner from Texas who says an influx of personal injury lawsuits drove up his insurance costs and forced him to lay off staff. He says he now worries about whether he can stay in business.
“If you own a commercial business, you’re gonna get sued … sooner or later,” Dave says in the documentary.
The film was made during PACT’s first year of operations. The group also has produced an Explainer Video that outlines the ambulance lawyer mill highlighted in the documentary. That video already has received more than 5.5 million views online.
“We will not rest until stories like Debra, Jeff, and Dave’s are a thing of the past,” Zelt said. “Lawsuit abuse is not an abstract concept. It has real, life-altering impacts on countless Americans whose personal injury attorneys prioritize profit over people.
“Moreover, lawsuit abuse impacts every American, costing the average family over $4,200 per year.”
In addition to the general public learning more about the system, Zelt said she hopes lawmakers see the documentary as well.
“We hope that legislators across the country see this documentary so they can better understand the devastating impact of lawsuit abuse on families in their own communities,” she said.
Zelt said the documentary will be shown at PACT’s inaugural summit this winter. And she says anyone who has a lawsuit abuse story to share can reach out to PACT on its website.

Politicians around the country are backing calls to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, as Congresswoman Robin Kelly announced she filed articles of impeachment over alleged ICE abuses and abuses of power.
North Carolina Congresswoman Valerie Foushee, in a social media video, announced her support for Kelly’s articles.
“ICE cannot be allowed to continue putting lives in danger across our country,” Foushee said. “The impeachment of Secretary Noem is the bare minimum Congress can do to protect our communities. I’m pushing for legislation that makes it illegal for ICE to stop U.S. citizens or make any stops based on nationality or race, and to ensure strict oversight of detention facilities.”
Kelly, speaking on the House floor, outlined three articles of impeachment against Noem, citing obstruction of Congress, violation of public trust, and self-dealing.
Kelly described federal ICE operations, including Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago, where agents reportedly conducted warrantless raids and caused significant damage to residents’ homes.
“Doors to people’s homes were kicked down, belongings including kids’ toys were strewn about,” Kelly said.
She added that the ICE agents lacked visible identification and expressed concern over whether some officers had affiliations with extremist groups.
Noem, appearing on Fox News, defended the operations, saying her department was enforcing the law and following President Trump’s promise to prioritize American citizens.
“Criminal, illegal aliens in this country are going to be brought to justice,” Noem said. “We’ve arrested dozens of murderers, rapists, traffickers in Minnesota, and we’re going to continue that work.”
Illinois officials are also weighing in.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker, appearing on CNN Sunday, criticized the federal response and Noem directly.
“The president is not following the law, Kristi Noem needs to resign or be impeached, and Tricia McLaughlin should not have the job she has, she’s a pathological liar,” Pritzker said.
The killing of Renee Good in Minnesota has intensified debate in Illinois over federal law enforcement in local communities. Kelly argues that reforms such as body cameras and identifiable officers are necessary to protect both immigrants and citizens.
A taxpayer‑supported nonprofit in Normal, Illinois, The Immigration Project, posted a social media alert Tuesday morning saying ICE was in the area, and nearby, Pritzker was spotted at a local restaurant.
The Immigration Project is the principal provider of social and legal services for immigrants in downstate Illinois, according to the nonprofit.
A few months ago, Pritzker urged Illinois to film ICE raids to document alleged abuses, citing distrust of official accounts and calling the Trump administration’s tactics “authoritarian.”
“Get out your cell phones and record and narrate what you see,” said Pritzker.
Between July 2025 and January 2026, The Immigration Project, collected more than half a million dollars in vendor payments from the Illinois Comptroller.

The U.S. military is withdrawing certain personnel from bases throughout the Middle East as President Donald Trump weighs “serious options” against the Iranian regime, according to multiple reports.
The withdrawal comes amid heightened tensions in the region as the president examines military strikes on Iran, as the regime is reportedly retaliating against protesters.
The International Media Office of the State of Qatar confirmed that “certain personnel” were departing from Al Udeid Air Base, saying that “measures are being undertaken in response to the current regional tensions.”
There is no indication whether the personnel refers to members of the armed forces or civilians.
There are several military bases located throughout the Middle East, including Al Udeid Air Base and a naval base in Bahrain, which is home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
The Islamic Republic targeted the air base in retaliation for the U.S. strikes against the country’s nuclear facilities in June. At the time Iran shot over a dozen missiles targeting U.S. military bases in Qatar, with Iran giving the U.S. prior notice of the intended strikes. The missiles were successfully intercepted in the air.
The president has been ratcheting up threats against the Islamic Republic in recent days, including a social media post telling Iranian protesters that “help is on its way.”
“Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – Take OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Tuesday morning. “I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS…MIGA [Make Iran Great Again].”
The post came on Trump threatened to imposed a 25% tariff on any country doing business with Iran.
Trump told reporters late Sunday evening on board Air Force One that he and the military are looking very seriously at responding to reports that the Iranian regime is killing protesters.
Earlier in the month, the president issued a stern warning to the regime if it retaliated against protesters.
“If Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United State of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” the president posted to his Truth Social account.
Trump told reporters Sunday evening that he is receiving “hourly updates” and that he is “looking at some very strong options.”
Retaliation against protesters in the Islamic Republic adds more fuel to the fire as the president is eyeing the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
During the last week of December, Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when the two leaders reportedly discussed the potential of future strikes on Iran if the Islamic Republic attempts to rebuild its nuclear capabilities, after U.S. strikes in June that targeted the country’s nuclear sites.
“I hear Iran is looking to rebuild its facilities again, and if they do we will have to knock them down again,” the president told reporters during a news conference in late December. “We’re going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that build up. So I hope Iran is not trying to build up, as I’ve been reading.”
The civil uprising in Iran follows a pattern of Iranian citizens protesting the brutal regime’s grip on its citizens. The most recent unrest occurred in 2019, with one of the most significant events taking place in 2009, known as the Green Movement, which resulted in millions of Iranian citizens demonstrating against the government.

President Donald Trump’s plans to acquire Greenland could cost U.S. taxpayers up front and over the long term.
Denmark’s leaders have said the semi-autonomous Danish territory isn’t for sale. So have Greenland’s leaders, who depend on fishing and subsidies from Copenhagen. Denmark’s central bank noted in a recent report that Greenland’s “economy is slowing down, with modest growth and serious challenges for public finances.”
Trump said U.S. ownership of Greenland is vital to national security, citing concerns that the island could otherwise be controlled by China or Russia. He has said his preference is to buy Greenland.
“I would like to make a deal the easy way, but if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way,” Trump said Friday.
Buying the nation could cost billions or trillions, depending on how the Arctic island of population 57,000 is valued. Because the market for buying and selling nations is extremely limited, there’s no universally accepted formula for determining a nation’s worth. That hasn’t stopped people from trying to devise one.
One analysis of Greenland’s potential cost comes from the American Action Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The group’s estimates range from $186 billion to $4.4 trillion.
That high-end figure represents the value of Greenland’s total critical mineral and energy assets, which are worth approximately $4.4 trillion. However, the American Action Forum analysis notes that Greenland stopped issuing oil and gas exploration licenses in 2021 due to cost and climate concerns.
That would knock the value down to about $2.7 trillion.
On the low end, $186 billion is the value for Greenland’s mineral reserves considered economically viable for extraction.
“Basically valuing Greenland as a giant mineral mine is one approach that we took,” American Action Forum Trade Policy Analyst Jacob Jensen told The Center Square.
Based on the value of land in Iceland, buying all the land in Greenland would cost about $2.76 trillion.
Others have taken different approaches.
In 2019, Financial Times’ Alphaville estimated Greenland was worth $1.1 trillion. Former New York Federal Reserve economist David Barker estimated Greenland was worth between $12.5 billion and $77 billion, the New York Times reported. On Wednesday, NBC News reported an estimated value of $500 billion to $700 billion, citing unnamed sources close to the matter.
However, even getting started could cost U.S. taxpayers because Greenlanders don’t want to become part of America either as U.S. citizens – like those in the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands – or U.S. nationals, such as those in America Somoa.
An independent poll done in 2025 found that about 85% of Greenlanders don’t want to join America.
U.S. officials have discussed sending direct payments to Greenland residents to convince them to leave Denmark and join the U.S., Reuters reported. U.S. officials discussed figures from $10,000 to $100,000 per person, according to anonymous sources cited by the news agency.
At $100,000 per person, the cost to open the door could be as much as $5.7 billion for the nation’s 57,000 residents.
Earlier this month, Denmark’s central bank found Greenland faces “challenges for public finances in the form of large deficits and a long-term sustainability problem.” That report noted that investment in Greenland is expensive and supported by taxpayers in Denmark. Total investments amounted to 36% of gross domestic product in 2023. Gross domestic product is a measure of total economic activity for a nation.
“Few countries in the world had a similarly high level of investment activity in relation to production output,” the central bank said.
Trump said Wednesday morning that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a 32-nation military and political alliance, should be leading discussions for the U.S. to annex Greenland.
In a social media post, he wrote in part, “The United States needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security. It is vital for the Golden Dome that we are building. NATO should be leading the way for us to get it.”
He cited his concerns about Russia or China if not the United States. He said NATO would be more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of America.
Trump added: “Anything less than that is unacceptable.”
Trump also said Greenland can’t defend itself.
“Two dogsleds won’t do it! Only the USA can!!!” the president wrote in a another post.
NATO was founded on the principle of collective defense, meaning that an attack on one nation would be considered an attack on all. That collective defense provision has only been used once, after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks on the U.S.
Trump’s comments come ahead of a planned meeting between U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and officials from Greenland and Denmark on Wednesday at the White House.
Last year, Trump outlined plans for a $175 billion missile defense shield, which he dubbed the Golden Dome. The system Trump envisions would protect the U.S. and Canada using multiple layers of defense against diverse potential attacks, making it much more complex than previous proposals.
The Golden Dome would also include space-based sensors and interceptors, as the president stated, which would be capable of intercepting missiles launched from space.