The notion that America would be stronger if it were bigger preoccupied several 19th-century U.S. presidents, but none more than James K. Polk. America’s 11th chief executive believed that expansion was America’s God-given right and duty. He argued that broadening America’s borders would deliver access to natural resources and enhance national security—and that no nation, not even an ally, should get in the way of that. Beginning with the annexation of Texas, which voted to become the 28th state in 1845, Polk aggressively expanded America’s footprint, enlarging the young nation more than any other president.
Polk sought to acquire Cuba, even if it meant the end of America’s alliance with Spain, pursuing an ambition that dated back to Thomas Jefferson. He preached the doctrine of “manifest destiny,” proclaiming that American settlers were divinely ordained to expand. He warned that if Cuba wasn’t annexed by the U.S., it would fall into British hands, leaving America vulnerable to attack. In May 1848, Polk offered Spain an astronomical $100 million (more than $4 billion today) to give up its claim to Cuba.
In a 21st-century revival of the same expansionist spirit, Donald Trump is fixated on annexing Greenland whether America’s Danish allies like it or not. Other presidents have invoked the legacies of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, but for Trump, Polk is among the list of paragons. He has referred to Polk as a “real-estate guy” who got “a lot of land,” and he hung Polk’s portrait in the Oval Office last year, replacing one of Jefferson.
Trump has given many reasons for wanting Greenland—deterring China and Russia in the Arctic, enhancing U.S. national security, avenging his denial of a Nobel Peace Prize, seizing Greenland’s crucial minerals, recognizing the huge island’s proximity to North America—but something much more basic and Polkian is at play. His advisers told me that the Greenland squeeze is part of a broader effort to cement his legacy among the elite club of presidents that includes Polk, Jefferson, and Dwight Eisenhower, who significantly expanded the size of the country. Trump, whose cartographical fascinations are well documented, wants his influence to be visible on maps for generations to come. Draping the world’s largest island in red, white, and blue is top of his list. Yesterday, Trump shared an image of himself, alongside J. D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, holding an American flag beside a sign that reads: Greenland—U.S. Territory Est. 2026.