Trump ally who inspired Greenland purchase idea quietly invests in Greenlandic companies

Ronald Lauder, the billionaire Estée Lauder heir who, according to former U.S. national security adviser John Bolton, first put the idea of “buying” Greenland into Donald Trump’s mind, has quietly taken ownership stakes in Greenlandic companies. The revelations come from a major investigation by the Danish newspaper Politiken.

Lauder even offered to act as an intermediary with Denmark when Trump began exploring the idea; a notion that triggered a diplomatic rift in 2019 and later shaped Trump’s revived Arctic ambitions when he returned to office in 2025.

Now Politiken reports that Lauder, at age 81, has begun investing directly in Greenland.

A major investment vehicle with far-reaching ambitions

According to Politiken, Lauder is a participant in Greenland Development Partners, a Delaware-registered investor consortium that has bought into Greenland Investment Group — a company with ambitions that stretch well beyond consumer products.

Greenland Investment Group has expressed interest in bidding for a major hydropower project at Lake Tasersiaq, Greenland’s largest lake. The project is envisioned as the energy source for a future aluminum smelter and, according to company projections, could markedly increase the island’s export revenues and boost the territory’s public finances.

The company is chaired by Josette Sheeran, the former U.S. deputy secretary of state under Condoleezza Rice and former head of the UN World Food Programme. Sheeran also leads the investor group’s Greenland portfolio more broadly.

Sheeran declined to answer Politiken’s questions about Lauder’s role or potential political motivations, instead highlighting her background working in regions lacking clean water.

“So I know the value of true purity,” Josette Sheeran said. “I am proud to help share this gift from nature with the world in a way that strengthens Greenland and its people.”

A smaller company reveals the network behind the investment

Lauder’s involvement first became visible through Greenland Water Bank, a smaller enterprise in which he and the investor group have also acquired a stake. The company bottles water from the Lyngmark Spring in Qeqertarsuaq on Disko Island and sells it locally under the brand Imivik.

Until this year, it was fully owned by Greenlandic businessmen Svend Hardenberg and Jørgen Wæver Johansen, who sold part of their shares to the foreign investor group.

Hardenberg told Politiken that Lauder and his colleagues understood the luxury market and offered access that the company had long sought.

“Lauder and his colleagues in the investor group have a very good understanding of and access to the luxury market,” Svend Hardenberg said. “The investment is not the most important thing for us, but rather gaining better access to the luxury market where our water should be a natural part.”

He said the water’s performance in comparative testing helped seal the Americans’ interest.

“And when they tested it, the conclusion was that our water was the best water in the world,” Hardenberg said. “It is on that basis that they became interested in participating in the development of our company.”

Greenland Water Bank remains a small firm, with 2024 accounts showing minimal staffing costs and a modest financial loss. But through it, Lauder’s presence in Greenland became unmistakable.

Experts warn of strategic motives

Analysts interviewed by Politiken say it is difficult to view Lauder’s investments as purely commercial, especially given his history with Trump and his role in encouraging the idea of U.S. control over Greenland.

“There is reason to be on guard,” Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard of the Danish Institute for International Studies said. “Especially when it involves a man like Ronald Lauder.”

Arctic geopolitics scholar Marc Jacobsen of the Danish Defence Academy agreed.

“It would be crazy to be naive in this context,” Jacobsen said. “It is clearly a strategic investment on his part.”

Politiken notes that Trump has described U.S. control of Greenland as “an absolute necessity,” while Lauder has defended the former president’s view, arguing the island could become “America’s next frontier.”

Experts emphasize that Trump frequently relies on private associates and informal networks, not official diplomats, in shaping foreign policy, making Lauder’s Arctic activities particularly notable.

Local political ties intensify scrutiny

Lauder’s Greenlandic partners are well connected. Hardenberg is a former top civil servant and energy executive, while Wæver Johansen is a former minister and now chairs the governing Siumut party in Nuuk. His wife, Vivian Motzfeldt, Greenland’s foreign minister, previously served on the board of Greenland Water Bank.

This blend of political influence and private investment has already drawn domestic criticism, especially when the water company was chosen to represent Greenland at a 2023 trade event in Washington, D.C.

Greenland’s minister for business and minerals, Naaja Nathanielsen, told Politiken that all investment cases are processed under established governance rules and that a new investment-screening law is expected in 2025.

Business meets geopolitics in the Arctic

For the Greenlandic entrepreneurs involved, Lauder’s investment provides access to international capital that has long been difficult to attract. Hardenberg described nearly ten years spent seeking global investors.

But Politiken’s reporting shows that in Greenland, foreign investment cannot be separated from geopolitics. Lauder — the man who once encouraged an American president to consider absorbing the island — is now embedding himself in Greenland’s emerging economy.

As DIIS researcher Søndergaard put it, Trump’s decisions often come through informal channels of wealthy confidants.

“These are the people Trump listens to,” Søndergaard said. “People like Ronald Lauder.”