Trump's Venezuela attack ignites new era of energy resources imperialism

The next stage of the energy arms race begins to turn sinister as superpowers gear up

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Narsaq, in southwest Greenland, is home to one of the largest undeveloped deposits of rare earth minerals and uranium in the world. A planned mine there has been halted due to a government ban on mining uranium. Photo: NASA/Jeremy Harbeck.

The world awakes this first Monday of 2026 to a dangerous new threat — the potential for destabilizing, political power grabs of resources across international borders. President Donald Trump’s attack on Venezuela and seizure of its dictator in the name of oil over the weekend has set every country in the region on alert.

It’s also come as a shock to Greenland, which until now had tried to quietly shrug off the president’s unwelcome attention toward its vast minerals and rare earths trove. The U.S. government’s assertions of “national security” needs, which have been behind everything it’s done under Trump, including shutting down offshore wind projects on the East Coast, is a tried-and-true imperialist excuse.