President Donald Trump has intensified his campaign to bring Greenland under U.S. control, refusing to rule out military force and prompting the strongest warnings yet from America’s NATO allies that such action would destroy the transatlantic security alliance that has underpinned Western defense for nearly 80 years.
“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, just one day after U.S. forces seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a dramatic military operation. “Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”
According to Ulrik Pram Gad, a global security expert at the Danish Institute for International Studies, “There are indeed Russian and Chinese ships in the Arctic, but these vessels are too far away to see from Greenland with or without binoculars”. Russia-China joint naval operations occur primarily in the Bering Sea near Alaska, not around Greenland’s coast.
The White House confirmed Tuesday that the administration is “discussing a range of options” to acquire Greenland, including the deployment of U.S. military forces.
“The President and his staff are evaluating a variety of options to pursue this significant foreign policy objective, and of course, employing the U.S. Military remains a possibility at the Commander in Chief’s disposal,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
The threats have triggered an extraordinary diplomatic crisis between the United States and Denmark, one of its oldest and most reliable NATO partners. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned Monday that any American military action against Greenland would effectively terminate the NATO alliance.
“If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2. “Including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War.”
“It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the United States needing to take over Greenland,” Frederiksen said in a statement Sunday. “The U.S. has no right to annex one of the three countries in the Danish Kingdom.”
The prime minister urged Trump to “stop the threats against a historically close ally and against another country and another people who have very clearly said that they are not for sale.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen issued an equally forceful rejection of Trump’s renewed interest, declaring that the territory’s 57,000 predominantly Inuit residents will not be intimidated into submission.
“That’s enough now,” Nielsen wrote on Facebook Sunday evening. “No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of annexation.”
Nielsen described the rhetoric from Washington as “completely and utterly unacceptable” and emphasized that Greenland operates as a democratic society with its own government and institutions.
“Our country is not an object of superpower rhetoric. We are a people. A country. A democracy. This has to be respected,” Nielsen stated.
The Greenlandic leader said his government remains open to dialogue with the United States, but only “through the proper channels and with respect for international law.” He urged citizens to remain calm while firmly rejecting what he characterized as disrespectful treatment from a close ally.
In an unprecedented show of solidarity, leaders from six major European powers—Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain—joined Denmark on Tuesday in issuing a joint statement defending Greenland’s sovereignty.
“Greenland belongs to its people,” the statement declared. “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”
The European leaders emphasized that Arctic security must be achieved “collectively with NATO Allies, including the United States, in adherence with the principles of the UN Charter on sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters in Warsaw that “Denmark can rely on the support of all of Europe,” while separately warning that Trump’s threats would overshadow upcoming talks on Ukraine’s security.
Nordic nations—Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden—issued their own statement stressing Greenland’s right to self-determination while noting their increased investments in Arctic security.
Canada also expressed support for Denmark. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced Tuesday that Foreign Minister Anita Anand and Governor General Mary Simon, who is of Inuk descent, will visit Greenland in early February to establish a new Canadian consulate.
“The future of Greenland and Denmark are decided solely by the people of Denmark,” Carney said while meeting with Frederiksen at the Canadian Embassy in Paris.
Despite the international backlash, senior Trump administration officials have continued to assert that Greenland rightfully belongs to the United States.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, told CNN on Monday that “the United States should have Greenland as part of the United States” and claimed that “nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.”
Miller’s comments came shortly after his wife, Katie Miller, posted an image on social media Saturday showing Greenland overlaid with an American flag and captioned simply “SOON”—a post that Nielsen called “disrespectful” and emblematic of the inappropriate pressure being applied.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reportedly taken a more measured approach. In a private briefing to lawmakers Monday, Rubio indicated that Trump aims to purchase Greenland rather than seize it militarily, and that the administration’s aggressive rhetoric is designed to pressure Denmark into negotiations.
Trump has appointed Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland, tasking him with representing U.S. interests on the island. Landry, who has publicly supported Trump’s acquisition efforts, said Tuesday that the president backs an independent Greenland with strong economic ties to the United States.
Trump’s interest in Greenland centers on its critical geopolitical position at the nexus of North America, Europe, and Russia. The island straddles the GIUK Gap—the maritime corridor between Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom—which serves as a chokepoint for monitoring Russian and Chinese naval movements between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.
The United States already operates Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a facility that provides early warning systems for intercontinental ballistic missiles and supports space surveillance operations for both the U.S. and NATO.
Climate change has heightened the region’s strategic importance. As Arctic ice recedes, new shipping routes are opening that could reshape global trade patterns and provide year-round naval access to previously frozen waters. Russia and China have been conducting joint military exercises in the Arctic and increasing their presence in the region.
Greenland also possesses vast deposits of rare earth minerals essential for electric vehicles, wind turbines, and military hardware. Greenland has 1.5 million metric tons of proven rare earth reserves (8th globally), with the Tanbreez project as one of the world’s largest individual rare earth deposits at approximately 28 million tonnes within a much larger host rock formation.
Trump indicated Sunday that Greenland would remain a focus of his administration’s attention in the coming weeks. “Let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days,” he told reporters, suggesting that action could come in late January.
The White House has confirmed that Trump wants the Greenland issue resolved before the end of his term, though officials have not provided specifics on how the administration plans to proceed.
