Why Trump zeroed in on Greenland, the world’s largest island, mostly covered in ice — in 3 charts, tell me about this news in (https://www.foxnews.com/politics/why-trump-zeroed-greenland-worlds-largest-island-mostly-covered-ice-3-charts)

Here is an overview of the news reported in that Fox News article:

The article details Donald Trump’s focus on Greenland, shifting from previous acquisition rhetoric to securing a security agreement with Denmark and Greenland. Under the framework, Greenland remains under Danish sovereignty, but the United States gains expanded permanent military access, basing rights, and overflight privilegescentered around the existing U.S. Space Force post at Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base). A key objective of the deal is to bar non-NATO adversaries, particularly China and Russia, from setting up military outposts or making sensitive investments in the territory.

The piece uses three charts to explain why this ice-covered territory holds immense geopolitical value:

1. Chart 1: Coastal Population vs. Vast Territory The first chart maps Greenland’s small population of about 56,000 residents, showing that they live spread across small coastal communities while roughly 80% of the island is covered by a massive inland ice sheet. Despite having very few people, the island covers an enormous territoryroughly the size of Alaska and Texas combinedplacing it directly in the path of critical northern defense and early-warning corridors.

2. Chart 2: Comparative Size and Arctic Chokepoints The second chart compares Greenland’s land area (2.2 million square kilometers) against Arctic competitors like Russia (17.1M), Canada (10M), the U.S. (9.8M), and China (9.6M). Although smaller than these superpowers, Greenland’s geographic position is strategic. As Arctic ice melts, new and significantly shorter trans-polar maritime shipping lanes are opening between North America, Europe, and Asia, giving the island immense maritime and logistical relevance.

3. Chart 3: Global Rare Earth Reserves The third chart illustrates global concentrations of rare earth elements, highlighting that Greenland holds an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of reserves. These minerals are vital for high-tech commercial and defense applications, including electric vehicle motors, wind turbines, radar systems, sonar, satellites, and precision-guided weapons. Because China dominates the marketcontrolling about 60% of mining and over 90% of processing capacitythe U.S. views Greenland’s accessible mineral wealth as a key counterweight to break Western reliance on Beijing.