By Pat Donahue, Coastal Courier.
Having proposed a bill to acquire and rename Greenland, U.S. House Rep. Buddy Carter is dismissing the flak he’s taking for the measure.
Carter, who represents Georgia’s 1st District in the U.S. House, has introduced into the House a resolution giving President Trump authority to purchase Greenland from Denmark and to rename it “Red, White and Blue Land.”
“It is very serious,” he said of his measure, “for a couple of reasons. First of all, the strategic location of Greenland is important to our national defense. We’ve got Russian ships and subs off of our coast, and this would give us an opportunity to have a more strategic location to intercept those before they even get over here.
“That’s important for our homeland, and the most important responsibility of the federal government is to protect our homeland, protect our citizens.”
The other part, Carter said, is the amount of rare minerals found in Greenland, and purchasing the island would give the U.S. the capability to mine for those. Greenland has deposits of platinum, gold, iron, uranium, tungsten and titanium and possibly resources of oil and gas.
“It would make us less dependent on our adversaries than we are now,” he said. “Right now, we’re too dependent on China for the critical minerals we get from them. This is very serious.”
Becoming a part of the U.S. also would enable Greenland’s population of just over 56,000, on an island of over 836,000 square miles, to become members of the “freest country in the world,” Carter said. “So it’s win-win.”
Greenland is part of Denmark, and Danish leaders are adamant the island is not for sale.
“I was in business for 32 years,” said Carter, who owned a chain of pharmacies. “And nothing is for sale, until it’s for sale.”
Carter said what Elon Musk, put in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency, is doing is “phenomenal.” Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, was also one of the founders of PayPal.
Carter pointed out that DOGE, in going through Social Security, is finding payments to people who would be 193 years old.
“When you have a bloated bureaucracy like we have, the waste, fraud and abuse is going to be is significant, and he’s uncovering a lot of that,” Carter said. “He’s using modern technology that we should be using. The things he’s bringing to the table are the things we should be using to identify waste, fraud and abuse.”
Carter was on his Friends of the First tour, handing out Valentine’s Day cards from school children to first responders across the district.
He said DOGE’s findings are a result of President Trump’s promises along the campaign trail. To date, DOGE has identified and cut $49 billion from federal spending, with a goal of $2 trillion cuts before it ends July 4, 2026.
“Say what you will about Donald Trump – but if he says is going to do something, he does it,” Carter said. “I applaud what he’s doing. We’ve got to rid this bureaucracy of the waste, fraud and abuse. Anytime you have a bureaucracy this big and bloated, you’re going to have a lot of this. This is an opportunity for us to use modern technology to identify it.”