How a MAGA influencer with ties to Russia became Trump’s Arctic adviser

U.S. Arctic Research Commission / Mika Volkmann/Getty Images

As Thomas Dans holds forth in the U.S. and abroad, it’s not always clear where the administration’s agenda ends and his own begins.

Heather Vogell , ProPublica

For more than 40 years, the U.S. Arctic Research Commission has advised Congress and the president on what to study in the frigid and dynamic far north, from the environment to military security. It’s typically done so without making waves, led by people well-versed in science and public policy.

That was until December, when President Donald Trump appointed a Texas venture capitalist and MAGA influencer with no formal background in science as the commission’s chair. Since then, Thomas Dans has traveled the globe generating headlines. Serving as the administration’s main voice on the Arctic, he’s advanced some of the president’s wildest ambitions, like a takeover of Greenland, and rankled NATO allies in the process.

Yet as Dans holds forth in the U.S. and abroad, it’s not always clear where the administration’s agenda ends and his own begins.

He has repeatedly said, for example, that the U.S. needs more icebreakers, ships that Trump has long viewed as critical to dominating the Arctic. In doing so, Dans has championed one shipbuilder in particular — Damen Shipyards, a Dutch company with which he had a business relationship.

“They’re the largest builder of icebreakers and ice-class vessels in the world,” Dans said at an event in Anchorage, Alaska, in April. At the time, his consultancy was working to help Damen land an icebreaker contract with the federal government.

As he’s spoken to audiences of government officials, diplomats, academics and journalists, Dans — who wears his Arctic commission lapel pin and exudes a professorial air — has also waded into foreign policy.

In the media and at public events, he’s backed Trump’s push to take over Greenland. And he’s advocated enthusiastically for closer U.S. relations with Russia — even as a bipartisan group of lawmakers calls for tougher sanctions on the country and more aid to Ukraine. Dans and Damen have long done business in Russia, and Dans has regularly shared social media posts that reflect a pro-Kremlin viewpoint.

“We want a peaceful Arctic, we want a peaceful world,” he said at an event a few days after he announced plans to travel to Moscow. “Russia and the United States gotta get along for that to happen.”

Opining so broadly on foreign policy is “far beyond” the Arctic Research Commission’s scientific mandate, said Fran Ulmer, who served as commission chair for more than nine years before being replaced by Trump in 2020. “And certainly outside the bounds of what the U.S. Arctic Research Commission has done in the past.”

Dans, whose consultancy Almiranta Strategies “ advises investors and businesses working in the Arctic,” according to his profile on the Arctic commission’s website, is far from the first in the Trump administration to mingle public and personal interests. The finances of many senior officials and the industries they regulate have drawn scrutiny as Trump has disarmed government safeguards against conflicts.

“It’s become standard for people to pursue their personal financial interest,” said Robert Weissman, co-president of the nonprofit watchdog Public Citizen.

Under the law, Dans’ position gives him access to government information from other federal agencies — an arrangement that could benefit his private interests. Such potential conflicts are typically governed by federal ethics rules. But the nature of Dans’ role affords him more leeway than other appointees. Commission members are not considered government employees and thus not required to file an ethics form disclosing conflicts.

Indeed, a White House official told ProPublica that Dans’ consulting work did not constitute a conflict of interest for that very reason.

“Tom Dans is doing a great job leading the Arctic Research Commission, and his shipbuilding expertise has helped him succeed in this role,” said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly. “The President appreciates all he is doing to advance American interests in the Arctic.”

The White House official said Dans is one of two commission members the law designates as representatives of “the interests of industry.”

Even so, Dans’ lack of research experience stands out. The other industry rep is a Ph.D. and former director of the United States Geological Survey.

Dans declined multiple requests to be interviewed for this story and did not respond to written questions from ProPublica, but he told The New York Times this year that his post did not preclude him from working in private business.

The Arctic commission has arguably never been more important. The region is warming at unprecedented rates, accelerating sea-level rise and causing severe weather in the U.S. and elsewhere. The melting ice also has geopolitical consequences. Russia and China are conducting joint military exercises in the far north. New shipping lanes have opened there. And mineral deposits are becoming potentially more accessible .

At a public appearance in July, Dans cited the commission’s four priorities: military and national security, energy security, economic development in the Arctic and “what we’ll call ‘community security.’” He did not define the term.

From Russia, With Love

Dans has long been taken with Russia, the country that has by far the most Arctic coastline.

His fondness dates back at least to seventh grade , when he says he was recruited to learn Russian in his Maryland public school. He later visited Moscow as an exchange student, then returned to work in finance in the mid-1990s.

He worked at a private equity fund financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which aimed to grow the private sector after the Soviet Union’s breakup. In a LinkedIn post last year , he reminisced about how he and Kirill Dmitriev, a Harvard-educated banker who now serves as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intermediary with Trump officials, traveled in the same circles early in their finance careers.

Decades later, in Trump’s first term as president, Dans landed a job in the Treasury Department as a senior policy adviser for international affairs. There, he served on a secret National Security Council task force on U.S. control of Greenland, a role first reported by The New Yorker . A former Trump administration official told ProPublica the group’s purpose was to strengthen the United States’ strategic position in Greenland and devise policies to bring the two closer.

Perhaps because of that work, Trump named Dans to the Arctic Research Commission for the first time in late 2020. His tenure was short-lived. When President Joe Biden took office in 2021, the new administration fired Dans and three other Trump appointees.

“We were fired without notice and anonymously slandered by the White House for ‘lacking relevant expertise,’” he wrote in The Hill . “At the time, I was the first commissioner in the agency’s 37-year history to speak fluent Russian, the language of the world’s largest Arctic nation.”

Dans launched an investment firm with two other former Trump Treasury officials, but it was short-lived, closing in late 2023 . That year, Dans said on Substack that he was the “first American” to launch an effort to buy the Helsinki Shipyard in Finland, where about half the global icebreaker fleet was built. One of its Russian owners at the time was a business partner of a former Putin deputy minister. The effort failed.

He traveled the world, talking with officials in places like Uzbekistan , Ukraine and Romania. He lobbied on behalf of the Kazakhstan Embassy and that country’s state-owned national oil and gas company, records show. He devised policy recommendations “for Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction” as a visiting fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, his LinkedIn profile says. He also contributed to Heritage’s federal workforce-slashing Project 2025, of which his twin brother Paul was director.

Then in May 2024, he launched a nonprofit called American Daybreak. Its goal was to foster ties between the U.S. and Greenland.

After Trump’s victory, Dans promised in comments on Substack that “the next Trump Admin is going to Make America a Great Arctic (MAGA) nation!” In early January 2025, Dans and American Daybreak helped arrange a visit by Donald Trump Jr. and late conservative activist Charlie Kirk to the Arctic island. He then sought to bring Vice President JD Vance’s wife, Usha, to watch a popular dog sled race (the trip was scaled back after protests). Dans also enlisted Greenland’s most outspoken MAGA enthusiast, a bricklayer named Jørgen Boassen, whom Dans has called a “ good friend ,” to generate support for U.S. control of Greenland.

“The Best Icebreakers in the World”

Dans was not named to a new full-time post in the second Trump administration. But he remained in the Trump orbit.

He was a frequent guest on conservative activist and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. He spoke for one episode from Romania, plugging far-right Romanian presidential candidate George Simion (who was later seen with Republicans at the Kennedy Center cutting up a cake shaped like Greenland with American flag frosting). “There’s a phenomenon here that’s the silent George Simion voter, kind of like your silent Trump voter,” Dans told Bannon. “And that’s significant.” (Simion lost and afterward unsuccessfully sought to have the election annulled .)

By August of last year, Dans found another opportunity in the private sector. He posted on LinkedIn that he was “very excited to announce that I am working with Damen Shipyards Group, one of the world’s leading shipbuilders.”

At the time, Dutch prosecutors were investigating the company for supplying Russia with equipment that they said could be used for military purposes, in violation of European sanctions. In his post, Dans shared a photo of himself arm-in-arm with three high-ranking company executives, including Rutger Dolk, who was later detained by Dutch authorities as part of the probe. The case is ongoing. (Dolk did not respond to a request for comment. In response to questions, Damen shared a press release that said it “has always acted in accordance with the applicable sanctions packages and that full transparency has been exercised about its activities.”)

Dans said he was working with the shipbuilder “to bring some of the best icebreakers in the world to the United States” and noted that the U.S. Navy had recently chosen Damen “to help it fast-track a new fleet” of a different type of vessel: up to 35 medium-sized ships to move troops and supplies to shorelines. According to records, the Navy bought the designs for the ship from Damen for $3.3 million without going through the typical bidding process, saying it would save time and money to go with a “proven” design. (The Navy did not respond to requests for comment.)

In December, Trump appointed Dans to head the Arctic Research Commission. The announcement said Dans’ primary focus as a businessman was “shipbuilding and transportation where, among other projects, he is leading an effort to develop icebreakers and ice-class vessels for the United States while helping restore America’s Maritime Base.”

Since then, Dans has championed Damen in conversations and at a public appearance. In April, he said that “outside of the commission, I wear a hat working for one of the world’s largest shipbuilders, which is a group called Damen.”

While ProPublica was reporting this story, Damen terminated its agreement with Dans, which would have paid him if the company got a contract to build an icebreaker.

If Dans was seeking to advance Damen’s interests, he may have been required under the law to register either as a lobbyist or a foreign agent, said Josh Rosenstein, an attorney who is an expert on the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Documents show he’d done neither.

“It certainly would raise questions, you know, in my mind about what sort of interactions he, on behalf of Damen, had with the U.S. government,” Rosenstein said. “And with whom.”

The White House pushed back. “These so-called ‘experts’ have no idea what they are talking about,” said Kelly, the spokesperson.

Whether Dans has other business ties that could impact his government job is unclear. When at the Treasury, he reported holding a stake in Global Restaurant Management LLC, the parent company of a firm that operated multiple Papa Johns restaurants in Russia at the time. The status of that investment — which Dans reported had a value of between $250,000 and $500,000 — isn’t publicly known today because he’s no longer required to disclose his financial interests.

Christopher Wynne, who headed Global Restaurant Management, said he could not discuss another person’s investments.

Unlike most high-level presidential appointees, the Arctic commission chair — who is eligible only for a stipend of up to about $55,000 a year — is not a federal employee under the law. And while the commission has a policy seeking to prevent conflicts of interest, there are no penalties for violating it.

Dans’ outside commitments could be problematic if he used his access to the federal government to improperly benefit another employer or country, said Virginia Canter, who served as an ethics lawyer at the White House and other agencies during Republican and Democratic presidencies.

“The fact that he has foreign entanglements and access to government-wide information,” she said, “it should raise national security concerns.”

ProPublica asked the White House about Canter’s comments but it did not respond.

A Chilly Reception in Greenland

Tensions over Greenland, which is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, have flared since Dans returned to the Arctic commission.

A month into Dans’ tenure as commission chair, Trump said he would take Greenland “one way or the other.” He initially refused to rule out military force. Dans echoed Trump, telling the BBC that month that “everything’s on the table.”

While Dans is a minor player in the federal government, “when he speaks, international audiences and officials see him as representing U.S. policy,” said Heather Conley, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. In his first five months as chair, Dans spoke often to the foreign press and traveled to locales that included Denmark, Norway, Italy and Canada — as well as Mar-a-Lago in Florida and the Explorer’s Club in New York City, records show. The commission spent about $87,000 on his travel expenses.

He did not return to Greenland. But the administration’s rhetoric put Denmark on a war footing . The country sent soldiers to Greenland armed with explosives and plans to blow up airfields in the event of an American invasion. At one point, a Greenlandic politician told ProPublica, some schoolchildren were instructed to practice hiding under their desks in case of such an event.

Greenlanders have repeated a refrain: Open for business, not for sale. Dans’ remarks only seem to have further deepened divisions. In February, while at a conference in Norway, he was caught on a hot mic telling a Greenlandic politician that “ the check’s in the mail .” A former chairman of the Arctic Research Commission, Michael Sfraga, was at the same conference and publicly told the politician to “rip the check up.”

Trump has continued to press the cause. In mid-July, he posted a picture on Truth Social of a map that included Greenland with the American flag superimposed on it.

The rhetoric has had consequences for Arctic research. Several Danish researchers said they will no longer participate in research with the U.S. One noted that her colleagues avoided Dans at a recent conference.

Dans’ current role in Greenland is unclear. He said at a recent conference he is not involved in talks among negotiators for the U.S., Greenland and Denmark that began earlier this year. In May, Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, and the U.S. ambassador to Denmark, Ken Howery, attended a business conference in the capital of Nuuk without Dans. Landry and Howery appeared for photo ops and opened a new, bigger consulate building, as protesters shouted outside .

A White House official told ProPublica that Greenland is “critical from the standpoint of U.S. national security” and “we are very optimistic that we’re on a good trajectory” in the diplomatic talks. The official did not address Dans’ role.

Reposting Russian Propaganda

Official visits to Russia have been exceedingly rare since the U.S. and its European allies froze ties with the country after it invaded Ukraine in 2022, yet at his appearance in Anchorage in April Dans announced that he was planning to go to Moscow “probably in the next month” to discuss research cooperation. The trip never happened; the State Department’s official guidance on Russia is “Do Not Travel for Any Reason.”

Asked about Dans’ push for reestablishing ties and travel plans, a State Department spokesperson referred questions to Dans.

His social media feed on X is filled with foreign news accounts, sometimes from outlets sympathetic to the Kremlin.

He reposted a story last October from Kazakh media on Putin’s warning that the U.S. would fracture relations with Russia if it supplied Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles.

In May, he wrote of his grandfather’s participation in the perilous Murmansk Run to supply the Soviet Union during World War II. “Happy Victory Day,” Dans wrote in Russian and English, reposting a video of Putin from Russian state media laying flowers at a soldiers’ memorial. The original poster of the video has been called a source of Russian propaganda by the Ukrainian government .

“Everyone obviously needs to be incredibly cautious when you’re reposting Russian information,” Conley said, because such posts could promote a narrative that is “against U.S. national interests.”

Posting “Happy Victory Day” in Russian may sound innocuous, but it is “a super-loaded thing to do right now,” she added. Putin has conjured Russia’s World War II victory when talking about Ukraine, even equating Ukrainians to Nazis in Germany.

The White House did not respond to questions about Dans’ Russia-related posts.

Under Putin, Russia has tied its future to the Arctic and the region’s natural resources, including liquefied natural gas. U.S. sanctions, which targeted the country’s energy sector, have set those efforts back — something that Russia has sought to reverse in ongoing talks with the Trump administration.

Dans has remarked on the developments on social meda, calling Dmitriev, the Russian who now serves as a key Putin negotiator with the Trump administration, “the Kremlin’s ace in the hole.”

“We’re older now and have some grey hair, but it’s neat to see who the Trump Administration is negotiating with,” Dans wrote of Dmitriev, who rose to head one of Russia’s sovereign wealth funds before being sanctioned by the Biden Treasury Department in 2022 for his ties to Putin and work raising funds from the U.S.

Asked about Dans’ calls for cooperation, Kelly, the White House spokesperson, said: “President Trump and his entire administration are willing to work with anyone in order to advance American interests, including peace in the Russia-Ukraine War. This approach has helped the United States bring both sides of the conflict together for historic peace talks.”

Dans seemed to downplay any differences with the Trump administration over Russia in one recent appearance, where he told an audience that included State Department officials, Russian Embassy personnel and Greenlandic diplomats that “getting Russia-Ukraine war ended, I think, is a priority. Stopping the killing.”

But the following month, in July, Dans opened and closed his remarks at a conference in Aspen by calling Russia a “neighbor.” He again urged that the U.S. repair its relationship.

“We need to be able to communicate with the Russians,” he said. “We’ve got some very important things to clear up with them with Ukraine, absolutely, but we have to work towards peace in the Arctic.”

Kelly said there was “nothing controversial about Mr. Dans’ remarks calling for an end to years of bloodshed and expanded dialogue.”

Doris Burke , Lynn Dombek and Alex Mierjeski contributed research. Joel Jacobs contributed data reporting.

NEXT STORY: Cold comfort

美国北极研究委员会/米卡·沃尔克曼/盖蒂图片社

托马斯·丹斯在美国和国外发表讲话时，人们并不总是清楚政府的议程在哪里结束，他的议程在哪里开始。

Heather Vogell，ProPublica

四十多年来，美国北极研究委员会一直就严寒多变的北极地区（从环境到军事安全）的研究方向向国会和总统提供建议。该委员会通常行事低调，由精通科学和公共政策的人士领导。

直到去年12月，唐纳德·特朗普总统任命了一位来自德克萨斯州的风险投资家、同时也是“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）运动的积极分子，此人并无任何科学背景，担任该委员会主席。自此之后，托马斯·丹斯周游世界，频频登上新闻头条。作为特朗普政府在北极问题上的主要代言人，他推进了总统一些最疯狂的野心，例如接管格陵兰岛，并在此过程中激怒了北约盟国。

然而，当丹斯在美国和国外发表讲话时，人们并不总是清楚政府的议程在哪里结束，他的议程在哪里开始。

例如，他曾多次表示美国需要更多破冰船，而特朗普一直认为破冰船对于控制北极至关重要。为此，丹斯特别力挺一家造船厂——达门造船厂，一家与他有业务往来的荷兰公司。

“他们是世界上最大的破冰船和冰级船舶建造商，”丹斯四月份在阿拉斯加安克雷奇的一次活动上说道。当时，他的咨询公司正在帮助达门公司与联邦政府签订破冰船合同。

丹斯佩戴着北极委员会的翻领徽章，浑身散发着教授的气质，他曾与政府官员、外交官、学者和记者等听众交流，也涉足了外交政策领域。

在媒体和公开场合，他都支持特朗普吞并格陵兰岛的计划。他还热情倡导美国与俄罗斯建立更紧密的关系——即便两党议员呼吁对俄罗斯实施更严厉的制裁，并向乌克兰提供更多援助。丹斯和达门长期以来在俄罗斯开展业务，丹斯也经常在社交媒体上发布亲克里姆林宫的言论。

“我们想要一个和平的北极，我们想要一个和平的世界，”他在宣布访问莫斯科计划几天后的一个活动上说。“俄罗斯和美国必须和睦相处，才能实现这一点。”

弗兰·乌尔默表示，就外交政策发表如此广泛的意见“远远超出”北极研究委员会的科学授权范围。乌尔默曾在2020年被特朗普取代之前担任该委员会主席超过九年。“这当然也超出了美国北极研究委员会过去所做的事情的范围。”

根据北极委员会网站上的个人简介，丹斯的咨询公司阿尔米兰塔战略公司“为在北极地区开展业务的投资者和企业提供咨询服务”。他并非特朗普政府中第一个将公共利益与个人利益混为一谈的人。随着特朗普削弱政府防止利益冲突的保障措施，许多高级官员的财务状况以及他们监管的行业都受到了审查。

“人们追求个人经济利益已经成为一种常态，”非营利监督机构“公众公民”（Public Citizen）的联合主席罗伯特·韦斯曼（Robert Weissman）说道。

根据法律规定，丹斯的职位使他能够接触到其他联邦机构的政府信息——这种安排可能有利于他的私人利益。此类潜在利益冲突通常受联邦道德规范的约束。但丹斯的角色性质赋予了他比其他被任命者更大的回旋余地。委员会成员不被视为政府雇员，因此无需提交披露利益冲突的道德表格。

事实上，一位白宫官员告诉 ProPublica，丹斯的咨询工作并不构成利益冲突，原因就在于此。

白宫发言人安娜·凯利表示：“汤姆·丹斯在领导北极研究委员会方面做得非常出色，他丰富的造船经验也帮助他胜任这一职务。总统赞赏他为推进美国在北极的利益所做的一切。”

白宫官员表示，丹斯是法律指定的两名委员会成员之一，代表“行业利益”。

即便如此，丹斯缺乏研究经验这一点仍然很突出。另一位行业代表拥有博士学位，曾任美国地质调查局局长。

丹斯拒绝了ProPublica多次提出的采访请求，也没有回复ProPublica的书面提问，但他今年告诉《纽约时报》，他的职位并不妨碍他在私营企业工作。

北极委员会的重要性或许从未像现在这样突出。该地区正以前所未有的速度变暖，加速海平面上升，并导致美国及其他地区出现极端天气。冰川融化也带来了地缘政治影响。俄罗斯和中国正在北极地区举行联合军事演习。新的航道已经开辟。矿产资源的开采也变得更加容易。

在7月份的一次公开露面中，丹斯列举了委员会的四个优先事项：军事和国家安全、能源安全、北极地区的经济发展以及“我们称之为‘共同体安全’的东西”。他没有对这个术语进行定义。

来自俄罗斯的爱

丹斯一直对俄罗斯情有独钟，因为俄罗斯拥有迄今为止最长的北极海岸线。

他对俄语的喜爱至少可以追溯到七年级，他说当时他在马里兰州的公立学校被选拔学习俄语。后来他作为交换生访问了莫斯科，然后在20世纪90年代中期回到美国从事金融工作。

他曾在一家由美国国际开发署资助的私募股权基金工作，该基金旨在苏联解体后促进私营部门发展。去年，他在领英上发帖回忆起，他和基里尔·德米特里耶夫（一位毕业于哈佛大学的银行家，现任俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京与特朗普政府官员之间的中间人）在职业生涯早期是如何在同一个金融圈子里交往的。

几十年后，在特朗普的第一任总统任期内，丹斯在财政部找到了一份工作，担任国际事务高级政策顾问。在那里，他加入了一个秘密的国家安全委员会工作组，负责美国对格陵兰岛的控制，这一消息最初由《纽约客》报道。一位前特朗普政府官员告诉ProPublica，该工作组的目的是加强美国在格陵兰岛的战略地位，并制定相关政策以拉近两国关系。

或许正是因为这项工作，特朗普在2020年底首次任命丹斯为北极研究委员会委员。但他的任期很短。2021年乔·拜登总统上任后，新政府解雇了丹斯和其他三位特朗普任命的官员。

他在《国会山报》上写道：“我们被毫无预警地解雇，还被白宫匿名诽谤，理由是‘缺乏相关专业知识’。当时，我是该机构37年历史上第一位能说一口流利俄语的专员，俄语是世界上最大的北极国家的语言。”

丹斯与另外两位前特朗普财政部官员共同创办了一家投资公司，但该公司昙花一现，于2023年底关闭。同年，丹斯在Substack网站上表示，他是“第一个”试图收购芬兰赫尔辛基造船厂的美国人，该造船厂建造了全球约一半的破冰船队。当时，该造船厂的一位俄罗斯所有者是普京一位前副部长的商业伙伴。最终，收购尝试以失败告终。

他周游世界，与乌兹别克斯坦、乌克兰和罗马尼亚等国的官员会面。记录显示，他曾代表哈萨克斯坦大使馆和该国国有石油天然气公司进行游说。他的领英个人资料显示，作为保守派智库传统基金会的访问学者，他曾为“乌克兰战后重建”制定政策建议。他还参与了传统基金会旨在大幅削减联邦政府雇员的“2025项目”，该项目由他的孪生兄弟保罗担任主任。

随后在2024年5月，他创办了一个名为“美国曙光”（American Daybreak）的非营利组织，旨在促进美国与格陵兰岛之间的联系。

特朗普胜选后，丹斯在Substack上评论道：“下一届特朗普政府将把美国变成一个伟大的北极国家（MAGA）！” 2025年1月初，丹斯和美国黎明组织促成了小唐纳德·特朗普和已故保守派活动家查理·柯克访问北极岛屿。之后，他试图邀请副总统JD·万斯的妻子乌莎观看一场颇受欢迎的狗拉雪橇比赛（由于抗议，行程缩减）。丹斯还拉拢了格陵兰岛最直言不讳的MAGA支持者——一位名叫约根·博阿森的泥瓦匠，丹斯称他为“好朋友”，以争取民众支持美国控制格陵兰岛。

“世界上最好的破冰船”

丹斯在特朗普第二任期内没有被任命新的全职职位，但他仍然留在特朗普的圈子里。

他曾多次做客保守派活动家、前特朗普顾问史蒂夫·班农的播客节目“战情室”。他曾在罗马尼亚录制过一期节目，为罗马尼亚极右翼总统候选人乔治·西蒙拉票（西蒙后来被拍到与共和党人在肯尼迪中心切一个格陵兰岛形状、上面装饰着美国国旗图案的蛋糕）。丹斯告诉班农：“这里有一种现象，那就是沉默的乔治·西蒙选民，有点像沉默的特朗普选民。这意义重大。”（西蒙败选，之后试图推翻选举结果，但未成功。）

去年八月，丹斯在私营部门找到了另一个机会。他在领英上发帖称：“我非常兴奋地宣布，我正在与达门造船集团合作，该公司是世界领先的造船企业之一。”

当时，荷兰检察官正在调查该公司，指控其向俄罗斯提供可能用于军事用途的设备，违反了欧洲制裁。丹斯在帖子中分享了一张他与三位公司高管（包括鲁特格·多尔克）的合影，多尔克后来因该调查被荷兰当局拘留。此案仍在调查中。（多尔克未回应置评请求。达门公司在回应相关问题时发布了一份新闻稿，称其“始终遵守适用的制裁方案，并对其所有活动保持完全透明”。）

丹斯表示，他正与造船厂合作，“将世界上一些最好的破冰船引入美国”，并指出美国海军最近选择达门造船厂“帮助其快速建造一支新型舰队”，这种新型舰队由多达35艘中型舰艇组成，用于向海岸线运送部队和物资。据记录显示，海军以330万美元的价格从达门造船厂购买了该舰的设计方案，而没有经过通常的招标程序，海军称采用“成熟”的设计方案可以节省时间和金钱。（海军未回应置评请求。）

去年12月，特朗普任命丹斯担任北极研究委员会主席。公告称，丹斯作为一名商人，主要关注“造船和运输业，他正在领导一项为美国开发破冰船和冰级船舶的工作，同时帮助重建美国的海洋基地。”

此后，丹斯在各种场合和公开露面中都力挺达门集团。今年4月，他表示：“在委员会之外，我为世界上最大的造船企业之一——达门集团工作。”

在 ProPublica 报道这则新闻的同时，达门公司终止了与丹斯的协议。根据协议，如果达门公司获得建造破冰船的合同，丹斯将获得报酬。

精通《外国代理人登记法》的律师乔什·罗森斯坦表示，如果丹斯试图推进达门公司的利益，他可能需要根据法律规定注册为游说者或外国代理人。但文件显示，他两者都没有注册。

罗森斯坦说：“这无疑会引发人们的疑问，你知道，他代表达门公司与美国政府有过哪些接触，以及与哪些人有过接触。”

白宫对此予以反驳。发言人凯利说：“这些所谓的‘专家’根本不知道自己在说什么。”

丹斯是否还有其他可能影响其政府工作的商业关系尚不清楚。在财政部任职期间，他曾报告持有环球餐饮管理有限公司（Global Restaurant Management LLC）的股份，该公司旗下拥有一家在俄罗斯经营多家棒约翰（Papa Johns）餐厅的企业。丹斯报告称，这笔投资价值在25万至50万美元之间，但由于他不再需要披露其财务利益，因此目前这笔投资的状况不为人知。

全球餐饮管理公司总裁克里斯托弗·韦恩表示，他无法讨论其他人的投资情况。

与大多数总统任命的高级官员不同，北极委员会主席——每年仅能领取约5.5万美元的津贴——并非法律意义上的联邦雇员。虽然该委员会制定了旨在防止利益冲突的政策，但违反该政策并无处罚措施。

弗吉尼亚·坎特曾在共和党和民主党总统执政期间担任白宫和其他机构的道德律师，她表示，如果丹斯利用其在联邦政府的影响力不正当地为其他雇主或国家谋取利益，那么他的外部承诺可能会带来问题。

她说：“他与外国有牵连，并且能够接触到政府层面的信息，这应该引起国家安全方面的担忧。”

ProPublica就坎特的言论询问了白宫，但白宫没有回应。

格陵兰岛遭遇冷遇

自丹斯重返北极委员会以来，围绕格陵兰岛（丹麦的半自治领土）的紧张局势不断升级。

在丹斯担任委员会主席一个月后，特朗普表示他“无论如何”都要拿下格陵兰岛。他最初拒绝排除动用武力的可能性。丹斯也呼应了特朗普的说法，当月他对BBC表示“一切皆有可能”。

尽管丹斯在联邦政府中只是个小角色，但美国企业研究所高级研究员希瑟·康利表示，“他发言时，国际听众和官员都认为他代表着美国政策。”记录显示，丹斯担任主席的头五个月里，频繁接受外国媒体采访，并前往丹麦、挪威、意大利和加拿大等地，以及佛罗里达州的海湖庄园和纽约市的探险家俱乐部。委员会为他的差旅费支付了约8.7万美元。

他没有返回格陵兰。但美国政府的言论使丹麦进入了战时状态。丹麦向格陵兰派遣了携带炸药的士兵，并制定了在美军入侵时炸毁机场的计划。一位格陵兰政界人士告诉ProPublica，一度甚至有学生被要求练习在发生此类事件时躲在课桌下。

格陵兰人反复强调：欢迎投资，但绝不出售。丹斯的言论似乎只会加深彼此的隔阂。今年二月，他在挪威参加一个会议时，被麦克风意外录到对一位格陵兰政客说“支票已经在路上了”。北极研究委员会前主席迈克尔·斯弗拉加也出席了同一会议，并公开要求这位政客“撕毁支票”。

特朗普持续推动此事。7月中旬，他在Truth Social网站上发布了一张地图，地图上格陵兰岛被叠加了美国国旗。

这种言论对北极研究产生了影响。几位丹麦研究人员表示，他们将不再参与与美国的研究项目。其中一位研究人员指出，她的同事在最近的一次会议上刻意回避丹斯。

丹斯目前在格陵兰的角色尚不明确。他在最近的一次会议上表示，他没有参与今年早些时候开始的美国、格陵兰和丹麦三方谈判。今年5月，特朗普的格陵兰问题特使、路易斯安那州州长杰夫·兰德里和美国驻丹麦大使肯·豪厄里在格陵兰首府努克出席了一场商务会议，丹斯并未出席。兰德里和豪厄里出席了会议并合影留念，同时为一座新的、更大的领事馆大楼揭幕，而领事馆外则有抗议者高声抗议。

一位白宫官员告诉ProPublica，格陵兰岛“对美国国家安全至关重要”，并且“我们对外交谈判的进展非常乐观”。这位官员没有提及丹斯的角色。

转发俄罗斯宣传

自2022年俄罗斯入侵乌克兰后，美国及其欧洲盟友冻结与俄罗斯的关系以来，对俄罗斯的正式访问极其罕见。然而，丹斯4月在安克雷奇露面时宣布，他计划“可能在下个月”前往莫斯科，讨论科研合作。但这次访问最终未能成行；美国国务院对俄罗斯的官方建议是“任何情况下都不要前往”。

当被问及丹斯推动重建关系和旅行计划时，国务院发言人将问题转给了丹斯。

他在 X 上的社交媒体动态充斥着外国新闻账号，有时甚至是来自同情克里姆林宫的媒体。

他转发了去年十月哈萨克斯坦媒体的一篇报道，报道中普京警告说，如果美国向乌克兰提供战斧导弹，将会破坏俄美关系。

五月份，他撰文讲述了祖父在二战期间参与危险的摩尔曼斯克运输行动，为苏联运送物资的故事。丹斯用俄语和英语写道：“胜利日快乐”，并转发了一段俄罗斯国家媒体发布的普京在士兵纪念碑前献花的视频。乌克兰政府称该视频的原发布者是俄罗斯宣传机构。

康利说：“显然，每个人在转发俄罗斯信息时都需要格外谨慎”，因为此类帖子可能会宣扬一种“有悖于美国国家利益”的叙事。

她补充说，用俄语发布“胜利日快乐”看似无害，但“在这个时候这样做却意义重大”。普京在谈到乌克兰问题时，经常会提及俄罗斯在二战中的胜利，甚至将乌克兰人比作德国的纳粹分子。

白宫没有回应有关丹斯发表的与俄罗斯有关的帖子的问题。

在普京的领导下，俄罗斯将自身未来与北极及其自然资源（包括液化天然气）紧密联系在一起。美国针对俄罗斯能源领域的制裁阻碍了这些努力——俄罗斯一直在与特朗普政府进行谈判，试图扭转这一局面。

丹斯在社交媒体上对事态发展发表了评论，称现任普京与特朗普政府谈判代表的俄罗斯人德米特里耶夫是“克里姆林宫的王牌”。

丹斯在谈到德米特里耶夫时写道：“我们现在年纪大了，头发也白了，但看看特朗普政府在和谁谈判，还是挺有意思的。”德米特里耶夫曾一度成为俄罗斯主权财富基金的负责人，但在2022年，由于他与普京的关系以及在美国筹集资金的工作，被拜登政府的财政部实施制裁。

当被问及丹斯呼吁合作一事时，白宫发言人凯利表示：“特朗普总统及其整个政府愿意与任何人合作，以推进美国利益，包括俄乌战争的和平。这种做法帮助美国促成了冲突双方进行历史性的和平谈判。”

丹斯在最近的一次公开露面中似乎淡化了与特朗普政府在俄罗斯问题上的分歧。他当时对包括国务院官员、俄罗斯大使馆人员和格陵兰外交官在内的听众说：“我认为，结束俄乌战争是当务之急。停止杀戮。”

但次月，也就是7月，丹斯在阿斯彭举行的一次会议上，开场和结尾都称俄罗斯为“邻国”。他再次敦促美国修复与俄罗斯的关系。

他说：“我们需要能够与俄罗斯人沟通。我们确实有一些非常重要的事情需要与他们和乌克兰方面澄清，但我们必须努力实现北极地区的和平。”

凯利表示，“丹斯先生呼吁结束多年的流血冲突并扩大对话，这番言论没有任何争议之处。”

Doris Burke、Lynn Dombek 和 Alex Mierjeski 参与了研究工作。Joel Jacobs 参与了数据报告工作。

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