In 1867, the United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire for $7.2 million. The deal was widely ridiculed. Critics called it "Seward's Folly," after the secretary of state and lead negotiator, William Seward.

In hindsight, given the state's immense natural resources and strategic location, it's tough to think of Alaska as anything other than one of America's most important territorial expansions since Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase.

Yet many have still not learned their lesson about the Monroe Doctrine, which warned foreign powers not to meddle with the U.S. in our hemisphere. Even fewer have learned their lesson about America's national interest in the Arctic region.

President Donald Trump's new Greenland deal proves it.

Trump has long sought the frigid, sparsely populated Danish territory.

In August 2019, Trump confirmed he was eyeing Greenland, referring to the massive island as "strategically nice" for the U.S. The Danish prime minister dismissed any American acquisition as "absurd," but the idea never died.

Just before his second term, Trump again declared U.S. ownership of Greenland an "absolute necessity." Shortly afterward, Donald Trump Jr. and the late Charlie Kirk toured the island. Ever since, Trump the elder has repeatedly argued........

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