Rachel Maddow on Monday put an American oil firm linked to President Donald Trump on blast after it dropped drilling equipment ashore in Greenland without officials’ approval.
“You put it all together and it kind of seems like we’re invading Greenland,” the MS NOW host said of the semiautonomous Danish territory that Trump has entertained annexing.
The controversial drop-off is linked to Texas-based company Greenland Energy and its plans for a major project in the remote area of East Greenland.
While Greenland ceased plans to issue permits for new oil projects in 2021, Greenland Energy partnered with a U.K. company that acquired oil exploration licenses before the ban.
Fast-forward to a tense community meeting in June during which Greenland Energy representatives reportedly told locals it had permission to land some 300 shipping containers of equipment on the Arctic island. The company later clarified it didn’t have the permits to do so, per Maddow.
Yet the company — in a piece shared by the Danish investigative outlet Danwatch last month — was seen dropping off some 15 containers via tugboat anyway.
Jørgen Hammeken-Holm, head of Greenland’s Ministry of Mineral Resources, said the company wasn’t permitted to unload “anything whatsoever” and the Greenland government has issued a “strong warning” to the company.
The pushback, Maddow argued, may have prompted Trump to troll officials when he later shared an image on Truth Social that depicted him as a giant eyeing a Greenlandic village with the text, “Hello, Greenland!”
Maddow raised her eyebrows over the matter, noting that the oil company “somehow hornswoggled itself” into partnering with Trump-adjacent TV personality Phil McGraw, aka Dr. Phil. (Note: McGraw has been tapped to host a docuseries on the company’s “unprecedented Arctic energy initiative.”)
“So, honestly, is this how we invade Greenland? With Dr. Phil doing a ride-along, like he did with ICE?” asked Maddow, a nod to McGraw joining immigration officers on a raid last year.
There are further links to Trump at Greenland Energy, too.
Board member Carol Craig is a U.S. Navy veteran whose technology company, Sidus Space, is involved with Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense program. Trump has stressed that control of Greenland is needed to build the system.
The board is also chaired by Larry G. Swets Jr., a crypto investor who reportedly has a separate business partnership with Paolo Tiramani, a billionaire who donated $10 million to Trump’s White House ballroom.
Swets, per The Guardian, has insisted that the oil project is “not related to American annexation.”