Meet the Bros Behind Trump's Greenland Bluster
Trump's renewed bluster over Greenland may just be noise, but its roots lie in the "network state" movement and deserve further exploration.
Donald Trump's renewed interest in Greenland has roots that have gone widely unreported. Dryden Brown, a 28 year-old entrepreneur who has previously attracted the attention of venture capitalist Peter Thiel, has a dream, and it's called Praxis. The plan? Bring together all of the "right people" in new cities founded around the principles of free market capitalism and the "network state" concept, do away with "dumb regulations," and pursue the ideas that make sense to misanthropic young men.
On November 12th, 2024, Brown posted that he traveled to Greenland, with the intention of buying it. "I went to Greenland to try to buy it. Here’s what happened," he wrote. Brown went on to explain the idea behind Praxis, and said he had become interested in buying Greenland after Trump had first proposed it in 2019. (It's been reported that Trump got that idea from his friend Ron Lauder, and also from Russia). Brown concluded, after meeting with authorities that "Greenland does not want to be bought," but reasoned that they could be bought off with new tax revenue that would come from his new city. Previously, Brown suggested that his projects would attract crypto dudes and hot girls — this seems to form a key part of his vision. Whether they could be enticed to terraform the permafrost and ice of Greenland remains to be seen.
On December 22, 2024, Donald Trump announced his renewed interest in acquiring Greenland from Denmark, and began making veiled threats suggesting that if they did not acquiesce, the country would potentially face crippling tariffs. Many analysts assumed that Trump was spouting off again to shape the geopolitical sphere before assuming office — a fair bet. But the same day, he announced his intention to appoint Ken Howery as ambassador to Denmark. Howery is a close personal friend to Elon Musk, as well as an ally of Dryden Brown and Praxis. Its account posted "According to plan."
Trump had previously named Ken Howery, a co-founder of both PayPal and Thiel's Founders Fund, to be ambassador to Sweden back in 2018, and he served in that role from 2019 to 2021. So appointing him as ambassador to Denmark isn't exactly a stretch.
For a glimpse into Brown's mindset, have a look at this manic tweet thread he posted back in October, 2024, which reads: "A year ago, I was canceled by the New York Times for trying to build a society of portly merchants, muscular warriors, and very thin priests. Yesterday, we announced a $525m facility to make it a reality. The press is dead, long live Praxis. Here’s how we did it." Read it yourself. It's absolutely strange.
Mother Jones reported in 2023 that Brown was also a fan of esoteric anti-western theorists Oswald Spengler (Decline of the West), Rene Girard (a favorite of Thiel's), Aleksandr Dugin (noted neofascist Russian geopolitical influencer), and various other reactionary writers such as Julius Evola and Curtis Yarvin. Reporter Gil Duran has also reported about Praxis previously here.
Gil Duran
Many are annoyed about giving Trump's neo-imperialist lust any airtime, calling it silly and unrealistic. But even as that may be the case, it would be a mistake to discount these developments as purely noise. They reflect an emergent and increasingly influential strain within US politics, which is increasingly networked with neo-reactionary movements worldwide.
Their goal is to mine sovereignty like any other extractive resource and, over time, promote capital flight from existing nation states into green-field tax advantaged jurisdictions. Even as that goal may be unrealistic, it may still cause immense economic damage and we should be clear-headed about the risks posed by this activity.
Jennifer Cohn contributed reporting to this story; thanks also to the America 2.0 research team.
