President-elect Donald Trump has said the importance of Greenland to national and global security cannot be overstated and former NATO supreme allied commander James Stavridis agreed.
Skeptical Democrats, cynical pundits, and liberal media laughed off Trump's suggestions of making the country an official U.S. territory.
"It's not a crazy idea," Stavridis told Sunday's "The Cats Roundtable" on WABC 770 AM-N.Y.
"We could do an awful lot in terms of business, investment, box out the Russians, box out the Chinese, and work very closely with Greenland."
The former NATO commander called the large Arctic island a "strategic goldmine for the United States."
"It sits at the very top of the North Atlantic; it protects approaches to our own country," Stavridis told host John Catsimatidis.
"It's geographically very important. It's full of strategic minerals, rare earth, probably a lot of gold. It's got a lot of natural resources.
"It doesn't have to become the 51st state, but it can certainly be an economic objective for us. I think that's how it plays out."
For skeptics refusing to listen to Trump's logic, Stavridis reminded all to just listen to Greenland and its people.
"The prime minister of Greenland said, 'We are not for sale, but we are open for business' – I think we ought to take him at his word," Stavridis said of Premier Múte Egede, according to The Hill.
Regardless of forging a deal to bring Greenland under U.S. control from Denmark, the Greenlanders say they are at least ready for independence.
"Greenland is for the Greenlandic people," Egede said Friday. "We do not want to be Danish, we do not want to be American. We want to be Greenlandic."
Egede added he is "ready" to talk to Trump on a deal.