EXCLUSIVE: Meet the Billionaire Make-Up Heir 'Who Sowed Seed for Donald Trump's Absolute Obsession With Grabbing Greenland'
Donald Trump continues to have Greenland on his mind.
Jan. 27 2026, Published 1:00 p.m. ET
RadarOnline.com can reveal Ronald Lauder, the cosmetics billionaire and longtime confidant of Donald Trump, is being accused of planting the idea of seizing the oil-rich island of Greenland that has grown into the U.S. president's latest obsession.
Lauder, 81, heir to the vast Estée Lauder fortune, has known Trump, 79, since the 1960s, when both men were young New Yorkers moving through elite business circles.
Donald Trump's Interest in Buying Greenland
Ronald Lauder is said to have planted the idea of seizing Greenland in Trump’s mind.
The notion of acquiring Greenland is now said to have first reached the Oval Office during Trump's first term, when he summoned his national security adviser to discuss a proposal relayed by a friend.
John Bolton, 77, who served in the role in 2018, recalled the moment.
He said, "Trump called me down to the Oval Office. He said a prominent businessman had just suggested the U.S. buy Greenland."
Bolton later learned the businessman was Lauder, and after discussions with him, a White House team began exploring ways to increase American influence in the Danish-controlled Arctic territory.
Bolton described the episode as emblematic of Trump's governing style. He added, "Bits of information that he hears from friends, he takes them as truth, and you can't shake his opinion."
The Greenland idea, once aired, proved durable. Trump's interest became public in 2019, prompting outrage in Denmark and a characteristic response from Trump, who tweeted a doctored image of a golden Trump Tower towering over a Greenlandic village with the caption: "I promise not to do this to Greenland!"
Ronald Lauder's Influence and Political Donations
The cosmetics billionaire pushed the Arctic landgrab as a 'strategic' necessity.
Lauder's background helps explain his access to Trump.
After working in the family cosmetics empire, he served in the Pentagon under Ronald Reagan and later became U.S. ambassador to Austria.
He unsuccessfully ran for the position of New York mayor in 1989.
When Trump won the presidency in 2016, Lauder donated $100,000 to the Trump Victory fundraising committee.
In 2018, amid questions about Trump's fitness for office, Lauder publicly praised him as "a man of incredible insight and intelligence" and said he was assisting with "some of the most complex diplomatic challenges imaginable."
Trump has threatened to take the territory the 'difficult way' if Denmark refused a sale.
Those challenges appeared to include the idea of Arctic expansion.
As Trump's rhetoric over the issue hardens, Lauder emerged as a public defender of the Greenland landgrab idea.
Writing last February, he argued Trump's interest in the island was strategic, citing rare-earth minerals and new shipping routes as ice recedes.
He said: "Trump's Greenland concept was never absurd – it was strategic. Beneath its ice and rock lies a treasure trove of rare-earth elements essential for AI, advanced weaponry, and modern technology. As ice recedes, new maritime routes are emerging, reshaping global trade and security."
Lauder also hailed Greenland as being at "the epicentre of great-power competition," and argued the U.S. should seek a "strategic partnership" with the island.
He went on: "I have worked closely with Greenland's business and government leaders for years to develop strategic investments there."
'We're Going to Do Something With Greenland'
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Lauder donated millions to pro-Trump groups while lobbying for Arctic expansion.
Corporate records in Denmark show a New York-based company with unnamed owners has recently acquired interests in Greenland, including a venture exporting "luxury" spring water from an island in Baffin Bay and plans linked to hydroelectric power for an aluminum smelter.
A Greenlandic businessman involved in the water project said: "Lauder and his colleagues in the investor group have a very good understanding of and access to the luxury market."
Trump, meanwhile, has escalated his language.
"We're going to be doing something with Greenland," he recently declared – warning it would be "either the nice way or the more difficult way."
Denmark's foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said after a White House meeting: "We didn't manage to change the American position. It's clear that the president has this wish of conquering Greenland."
Lauder's proximity to power has also raised conflict-of-interest questions elsewhere.
A leaked 2023 letter linked him to a consortium seeking Ukrainian lithium. After donating $5million to MAGA Inc in March 2025, the U.S. and Ukraine signed a minerals deal, later awarding the first tender to that consortium.
