Greenland on X: U.S. lawmakers’ social media posts on critical minerals and geostrategic relevance of the world’s largest island

Haneklaus, Nils and Hrabušajová, Michaela and Hortay, Olivér and Kökény, László and Kmetty, Zoltán and Mišík, Matúš (2026) Greenland on X: U.S. lawmakers’ social media posts on critical minerals and geostrategic relevance of the world’s largest island. EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRIES AND SOCIETY, 26. No. 101867. ISSN 2214-790X (In Press)

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Abstract

Greenland has re-entered the global strategic debate amid renewed U.S. rhetoric about acquiring the island, driven by its geostrategic location and resource endowment. This study examines how prominently Greenland featured in official U.S. political communication on X (formerly Twitter) during the first 300 days after President Trump’s second electoral victory (November 6, 2024–September 2, 2025). We collected 126,445 posts from 560 official U.S. lawmaker and senior official accounts and applied a mixed-methods design combining keyword-based retrieval, quantitative engagement benchmarking, as well as qualitative interpretation of high-performing posts. Contrary to expectations given the topic’s media visibility, Greenland appeared only rarely: 87 posts (0.069 %) were substantively Greenland-related, and even in the peak month (January 2025) just 30 relevant posts (0.25 %) were recorded. Yet the limited volume masked disproportionate influence. Greenland posts generated substantially higher engagement than baseline posts, averaging 1525 comments versus 299 (≈5.1 ×), 1235,026 views versus 146,234 (≈8.5 ×), and 1515 reposts versus 412 (≈3.5 ×). While part of this reflects higher-profile authors (mean followers 801k vs 439k), amplification dynamics were evident, including a J.D. Vance pre-trip post exceeding 74 million views and a Bernie Sanders post becoming the most reposted and favorited Greenland-related item in this analysis. We conclude that Greenland discourse on X was scarce but influential, functioning as a high-impact signal rather than sustained communication. We recommend further triangulating X analysis with parliamentary records, reports, and official statements to mitigate platform and keyword limitations while retaining the value of less filtered, real-time political signaling.

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