President-elect Donald Trump has been expressing his interest in the U.S. acquiring the Arctic island of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, for strategic purposes, but has met significant pushback from both Danish and Greenlandic political leaders.

A new poll of Greenlanders shows that a solid 57% majority of the large island's population is in favor of cutting ties with Denmark and joining the U.S. in some capacity, according to the Washington Examiner.

Public support for Trump's plan could help transform it from easily dismissed aspirational talk to an inevitable and undeniable reality in which control of the important but sparsely populated island changes hands.

Poll finds majority support

A firm known as Patriot Polling recently asked more than 400 Greenlanders, in what was its first survey conducted outside the U.S., whether they would approve or disapprove of the U.S. acquiring Greenland from Denmark by some unspecified means.

The pollsters found that approximately 57% of the Arctic island's population approved of becoming a part of the U.S. while around 34% disapproved and roughly 5% were undecided.

Notably, the poll was conducted between Jan. 6 - Jan. 11, during which the island was visited by the president-elect's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., to try to promote the idea of the U.S. acquiring Greenland ahead of Trump formally taking office on Jan. 20.

Greenland is important for multiple reasons

During President-elect Trump's first term in office, he first floated the idea of the U.S. taking control of Greenland in 2019, but the idea was largely dismissed at that time as a joke, though it now seems apparent that Trump was serious as he has raised the issue once again.

The idea is not as far-fetched as some may presume, and Trump is far from the first U.S. president to propose acquiring the island that is strategically located in the Arctic Circle and is believed to be rich with abundant valuable resources like rare earth minerals as well as large deposits of oil and natural gas.

Gaining control over Greenland's resources would bolster the U.S. economy and domestic manufacturing while its location would help secure international trade routes through the Arctic and limit the activities and movements of rivals like Russia and China in the region.

How will this saga play out?

The BBC recently considered President-elect Trump's renewed interest in Greenland and laid out four possible scenarios for how the developing situation could play out in the coming months and years.

The first scenario involves Trump losing interest or not being serious about acquiring Greenland but nonetheless succeeding in prompting Denmark to make more of an effort to bolster the island's military defenses against rival nations like Russia and China.

A second possibility involves Greenland voting for independence from Denmark, after which closer ties are forged with the U.S., albeit as a freely associated independent nation and not as a U.S. territory.

Yet another possible scenario envisioned by the BBC has Trump increasing economic pressure on Denmark and the European Union more broadly to encourage a sale of the island or some other arrangement in which the U.S. gains economic and military control of Greenland.

A final and far less likely option involves Trump using the U.S. military -- which he refused to rule out during a recent press conference -- to simply take control of Greenland over the objections of Denmark, the EU, and other NATO allies, even though U.S. control of Greenland would likely benefit all of them.