IKATEQ, Greenland—Deep in a remote fjord in Greenland, hundreds of rusty fuel drums known locally as “American flowers” litter the icy wilderness.

Vehicles marked as property of the U.S. Army decay in the snow-covered valley near the abandoned remains of an aircraft hangar. 

As President Trump seeks to expand U.S. territory with the island, this base, a remnant of World War II, stands as a reminder of the last time the U.S. tried to own Greenland.

Trump’s insistence that the U.S. must control Greenland is the latest in a string of American flirtations with the Arctic island going back over a century. It is, however, the first to threaten to splinter the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

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