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President-elect Donald Trump wants to acquire Greenland. This is not merely one of his japes, as it may have been during his first term. Great-power territorial acquisition is on his dream list for his second term. And while the annexation of Canada as the “51st state,” as he often posts, may be more in the messing-around category, he’s speaking quite seriously about seizing Greenland. The Danish crown is paying attention.

“In meetings, at dinners and in passing conversations, Mr. Trump has asked advisers whether the U.S. can acquire Greenland, listened with interest when they discuss its abundant resources and geopolitical importance,” the Wall Street Journal first reported in 2019. It seemed, as with so many things during his first term, that it was something staff promised to “look into” while assuming that Trump would forget and move on to something else.

Trump, however, has not forgotten, and he will spend much more of his second term trying to execute his most fanciful plans than his first. In Trump’s announcement of his nominee to serve as ambassador to Denmark, Ken Howery, he emphasized that “for purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.” Kenny, you have your orders.

Greenland, with a population of around 50,000, is an autonomous territory of Denmark, a kingdom with which........

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