As 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump renews his push to acquire Greenland, fellow Wharton alumnus Ronald Lauder has made significant investments across the Danish territory.
Lauder — a former Penn donor who graduated from the University in 1965 — is credited with first sparking Trump’s interest in Greenland, having pitched the idea to the President several years ago. His recent investment in the territory coincides with a White House effort to frame United States control of the island as imperative to national security interests.
“President Trump believes that Greenland is a strategically important location that is critical from the standpoint of national security, and he is confident Greenlanders would be better served if protected by the United States from modern threats in the Arctic region,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly wrote to The Daily Pennsylvanian. “The President is committed to establishing long-term peace at home and abroad.”
The White House declined to comment on whether Lauder influenced the Trump administration’s recent interest in Greenland. Lauder did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
According to Danish news outlet Politiken, Lauder — the sole heir of $29 billion cosmetics company Estée Lauder — recently invested in a Greenlandic freshwater bottling company. His new partners include Jørgen Wæver Johansen, the husband of Greenland’s foreign minister Vivian Motzfeldt, and businessman Svend Hardenberg.
“Lauder and his colleagues in the investor group have a very good understanding of and access to the luxury market,” Hardenberg said on the investments.
Lauder is reportedly a member of the American investment group Greenland Development Partners, which has a stake in several projects across the territory.
When asked to comment on concerns over Lauder’s increasing political and economic influence on the island, Johansen told a local newspaper that “someone is trying to make something out of nothing.”
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In addition to his dealings with Johansen and Hardenberg, Lauder’s investment group has expressed interest in a major hydropower project at Greenland’s largest lake, along with a separate venture to export spring water from an island off of Greenland’s west coast.
During his first term in office, Trump dedicated research to the potential annexation of Greenland after Lauder proposed the idea. At the time, Lauder even volunteered to serve as a “back channel” for negotiations with Denmark regarding the sale.
Trump, who graduated from Wharton three years after Lauder, told his then-national security advisor John Bolton that “a friend of mine, a really, really experienced businessman, thinks we can get Greenland.”
At the beginning of last year — soon after Trump’s second inauguration — speculation around the purchase of Greenland resumed. In February 2025, Lauder defended Trump in a New York Post column.
“Trump’s Greenland concept was never absurd — it was strategic,” he wrote. “I have worked closely with Greenland’s business and government leaders for years to develop strategic investments there, even as the Biden administration, unsurprisingly, ignored and underestimated its vast opportunity.”
Lauder added that Greenland’s natural resources and strategic positioning make it “America’s next frontier.”
Under the 1951 Defense of Greenland Agreement, the U.S. already maintains access to the territory and, with Denmark’s consent, can station troops and military facilities.
“We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Sunday. “Because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.”
In recent weeks, Danish and Greenlandic leaders have strongly rejected Trump’s advancements.
“The United States has once again reiterated its desire to take over Greenland,” the Office of the Prime Minister of Greenland wrote in a Jan. 12 statement to CNN. “This is something the government coalition in Greenland cannot accept under any circumstances. Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.”
In a Wednesday social media post, Trump wrote that his administration and Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Mark Rutte agreed upon a framework to govern U.S. foreign policy in Greenland.
“This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations,” the post read.
The compromise, senior officials familiar with the matter told The New York Times, would grant the United States sovereignty over small pockets of Greenland where the United States could build military bases.
Between 2017 and 2019, Lauder contributed a combined $200,000 to the Trump Victory, a joint fundraising organization with the Republican National Committee. Lauder’s support of the President resulted in a 2020 petition for his removal from the Estée Lauder board of directors.
While Lauder did not financially support Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, he attended Trump’s second presidential inauguration and issued a public statement welcoming Trump with “enthusiasm and great optimism.”
Lauder donated extensively to Penn in the past, but announced the end of his support in October 2023 in response to the University’s response to allegations of campus antisemitism.
Staff reporter Luke Petersen covers national politics and can be reached at petersen@thedp.com. At Penn, he studies philosophy, politics, and economics. Follow him on X @LukePetersen06.
Staff reporter Riana Mahtani covers national politics and can be reached at mahtani@thedp.com. At Penn, she studies political science. Follow her on X @Riana_Mahtani.
