The Internet yields many treasures, including food for extreme speculation. That said, you may not take this seriously, but it is multi-sourced, and spooky enough with ICE in Minnesota being weird enough, but figure if this fits the equation, with ICE.
Moving out of the INTRO - SO YOU KNOW QUITE CURRENT MAINSTREAM COVERAGE EXISTS, TO TRUST IT -
Published
Jan 12, 2026 at 12:22 PM EST
With the Trump administration repeatedly highlighting its intention to acquire Greenland, questions about a proposed libertarian‑style “freedom city” have resurfaced.
Newsweek has reached out to Peter Thiel via Palantir, Marc Andreessen via Meta, and Praxis via email for comment on Monday.
Why It Matters
President Donald Trump reiterated his desire to acquire Greenland either through purchase or occupation during a meeting at the White House on Friday where he said the Arctic island was critical for U.S. security given the threats posed by Russia and China.
However, Greenland is officially part of NATO-member Denmark’s territory and has wide-ranging autonomy with its own extensive local government.
A survey conducted last year by pollster Veria found 85 percent of Greenlanders rejected being part of the U.S. while Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said a U.S. military invasion would spell the end of NATO, which both countries are part of.
What To Know
In April, Reuters reported that some Silicon Valley tech investors had been advocating for the idea of a "freedom city" in Greenland, which the outlet described as “a libertarian utopia with minimal corporate regulation,” citing three individuals familiar with the matter.
According to the report, the vision for the island would include an artificial intelligence (AI) hub, autonomous vehicles, space launch operations, micro nuclear reactors, and a high‑speed rail network.
Two sources the outlet spoke two reportedly said PayPal co-founder Peter Theil and entrepreneur Marc Andreessen have been supportive of such an outpost on the island, though it added at the time that it was unclear whether either were actively lobbying the government.
“Peter isn’t involved in any plans or discussions regarding Greenland," a Theil spokesperson said, per Reuters.
New Scientist reported last week that Praxis—a company that was aiming to construct such a city— has raised hundreds of millions in seed funding and that its co‑founder, Dryden Brown, went to Greenland in 2023 in an attempt to negotiate a purchase of the territory.
On X, Brown wrote in 2024 that he wanted to create an early model of Terminus—the name Elon Musk has suggested for a future city on Mars. Forbes mentioned in a Friday report that Thiel helped fund the startup in 2021.
"We must build a prototype of Terminus on Earth before departing for Mars. I believe Greenland is the place," Brown posted.
Newsweek previously reported that a coalition of groups opposing regulation had called for “freedom cities” to be created throughout the U.S.
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump recently told reporters: "If we don't take Greenland, Russia or China will take Greenland, and I am not going to let that happen...If we don't do it the easy way, we're going to do it the hard way."
Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said earlier this month: "Our country isn't something you can deny or take over because you want to."
Anne Merrild, a professor of sustainability and planning at Aalborg University in Denmark said, according to New Scientist: “Greenland is not an empty space waiting to be experimented on. It has communities, democratic institutions and a strong sense of self-determination. Any proposals such as network cities or freedom cities would have to align with Greenland law, values and long-term social goals, and so far these ideas seem disconnected from reality.”
What Happens Next
The administration is expected to hold talks with Danish officials on Wednesday to address issues related to Greenland.
Other online items flesh out the notion -
https://www.insidehook.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Billionare-Cities-Hero-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C800 “I went to Greenland to try to buy it,” Dryden Brown posted on X a week after Donald Trump won reelection in November 2024. “Here’s what happened.”
That sounds like the setup to a joke, but Brown is entirely serious. He is part of a cadre of iconoclastic, very-online men looking to found the city of the future, with funding tied to crypto organizations, venture capital and libertarian billionaires.
As the co-founder of Praxis, a theoretical city-state aiming to “restore Western Civilization,” Brown has had designs on Greenland as a home base since 2019, when President Donald Trump first started talking about buying the territory from Denmark. With the new administration bullying Danish diplomats on the phone and reiterating its interest in acquiring the island, Praxis finds itself in an enviable position relative to other futuristic city projects: with its goals and its financial backers aligning with the current administration.
The most prominent investor linked to Praxis is Peter Thiel. A member of the “PayPal Mafia” and erstwhile frenemy of Elon Musk, Thiel was one of the first Silicon Valley elite to support Donald Trump when he became a presidential candidate in 2016. He is also an outspoken supporter of “seasteading,” an effort to build floating city-states in international waters, and has gabbed with Joe Rogan about moving out of California to pay fewer taxes. So it’s no surprise that he backs Pronomos Capital, a venture which has become a hub for funding experimental cities, including Praxis.
From 2016: President-elect Donald Trump with Peter Thiel during a meeting with tech execs. https://www.insidehook.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Thiel.jpg?w=1500 Founded by Patri Friedman — grandson of Milton Friedman, the libertarian economist — with seed funding from Thiel, Pronomos Capital has a portfolio of city projects in countries ranging from Palau to Nigeria. The most widely known is Próspera, located on the island of Roatán in Honduras. Developed as a Zone for Employment and Economic Development, or ZEDE, with a highly autonomous administrative structure and its own civil code, Próspera is far and away the leader in the “city of the future” category for the simple fact that it actually exists.
That may not be the case for very long, however, as the city has had several disagreements with its host country. As of September 2024, the top court in Honduras declared the legal underpinnings of ZEDEs unconstitutional. Another Pronomos investment is Itana, formerly known as “Talent City,” which is under development in Nigeria roughly 50 miles east of Lagos; it operates under a similar model as Próspera with backing from the Nigerian government.
embedded video
All of the cities present some amalgam of laissez-faire principles, tech-evangelist mindsets and visions of a crypto-native economy. Lower taxes and fewer regulations, the artchitects behind them say, would promote innovation and foreign investment. Praxis goes a step further, calling itself “the world’s first Network State,” a concept developed by tech entrepreneur and former CTO of Coinbase Balaji Srinivasan. He called for a state that “crowdfunds territory around the world” before gaining recognition from existing countries. Praxis claims to have over 87,000 “Praxians” as part of its currently internet-only state.
“As the warrior-kings once sought the sacred Grail,” reads Praxis’s so-called Declaration of Ascent, “so too shall we build an empire where true power flows from heroic courage and alignment with the divine order.” Brown’s description of Praxis builds on these pseudo-mythological themes: Praxian architecture would be “hero futurism,” with their first city on Earth a stepping stone to expanding to Mars for their “Network Empire.”
While all this gravitas has yet to translate into a definite location, it has translated into strong financial backing. Their newest financing round, announced in late October, totaled up to $525 million, to be released in tranches upon the development of “the next great city”; investors include Arch Lending (crypto-backed loans), GEM Digital (digital assets) and Manifold Trading (crypto trading). That’s a far cry from their 2021 funding round, which went to the tune of $4.2 million, according to The New York Times. In that announcement, Praxis thanked Thiel-backed Pronomos Capital as early investors.
Back to Greenland: According to his tweets, Brown and his Praxis co-founder, former hedge fund analyst Charlie Callinan, landed in the city of Nuuk in the summer of 2024, at which point they jogged around the capital before promptly going “Praxis mode” by jumping into the ocean.
During the trip, he claims to have met with members of parliament and found that, despite a majority of Greenlanders desiring independence from Denmark, which has officially overseen the territory since 1953, there were several hurdles to his plan. As Rasmus Jarlov, a member of the Danish center-right party, tweeted back at Brown: “I can guarantee you that there is no way we would approve independence so that you could buy Greenland.”
For Praxis, the negative response may seem insurmountable, but there are also tailwinds: President Trump has nominated Ken Howery, another member of the PayPal Mafia, to become the ambassador to Denmark. The official response from Denmark’s governing party to inquiries from Trump has been sullen as well, but the president’s efforts have landed a request for a meeting from the Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen amid attempts to ease security concerns in the region. Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte B. Egede also signaled he was ready to speak with Trump, though he drew a line in the sand on the issue: “We do not want to be Americans.”
Besides a reticent Danish government, one of the major impediments to buying the country is the roughly half-billion in annual block grants the country receives from its European benefactor. If Greenland were to come under U.S. control, however, the inconceivable prospect of Praxis becoming the newest, shiniest city of the future might become much more conceivable.
A brief Gizmodo post - January 10, 2025 - is on point, and a lengthy MJ post - September 7, 2023 - details much, with images, and the publication dates show the concept has been kicking around the web with minimal MSM attention to early posts.
Readers are invited to search for coverage beyond this sampling.
Praxis (proposed city) has a Wiki
Finally, there is this YouTube video.
So, as down-the-rabbit-hole as all this is, will Trump say whether it, its money, is an incentive for his burning lust to buy Greenland (with taxpayer money), for use via arrangements he may have made with deep pocket election donors?
Would Trump do that? In a fucking eye-blink, but in this instance, did he?
That would be threatening a death knell ro NATO in order to kiss Peter Thiel's ass, and if the price is right what's Trump to do? Yeah, that's my conclusion too.
A right price. But it's only a circumstantial inference.
