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President Donald Trump has turned up the heat on Greenland, insisting the United States must take control of the Arctic territory, even as Denmark, Greenland and key European allies push back and call for a stronger NATO presence in the region.
In a fiery post on Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump said that “anything less than” acquiring Greenland would be “unacceptable,” arguing that U.S. national security depends on it. Without American control, he warned, Greenland could fall into the hands of Russia or China.
“The United States needs Greenland,” Trump wrote, adding that NATO would become far more powerful if the territory were under U.S. control.
The comments landed just hours before a high-stakes meeting at the White House between officials from the United States, Denmark and Greenland, the first talks specifically called to address Trump’s repeated threats to take over the semiautonomous Danish territory.
This time, Denmark and Greenland are showing no cracks.
“If we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said Tuesday during a joint appearance in Copenhagen with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. “The time has come to stand together.”
Frederiksen made it clear the two governments would act as one. “We come together, we stay together, and we leave together,” she said, laying out their strategy ahead of the Washington meeting.
Greenland, while self-governing, remains part of the Kingdom of Denmark and is already covered by NATO’s collective defense. Danish officials stress that the island is not for sale and that Denmark does not even have the legal authority to sell it.
Still, Trump has refused to soften his stance. He has not ruled out the use of military force, though Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the president prefers to buy Greenland rather than invade it. Trump has previously said he would act “whether they like it or not.”
As tensions rise, Denmark has stepped up security in the Arctic and is now calling for a stronger NATO troop presence in Greenland. The Danish Defense Ministry says forces are continuously training for Arctic deployment and maintaining a heightened presence to prepare for potential escalations.
The Washington talks include Rubio and Vice President JD Vance, whose late addition has raised eyebrows. Analysts say Vance’s presence signals that the Trump administration is taking a tougher, more confrontational approach.
“The fact that it’s not just foreign ministers but also JD Vance is upping the ante,” said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels.
Despite the sharp rhetoric, some experts see the meeting itself as progress.
“The bar for success is very low,” said Ulrik Pram Gad of the Danish Institute for International Studies. “A success would simply be that we are now talking.”
Europe is also watching closely. French President Emmanuel Macron warned that any threat to the sovereignty of a European ally would have “unprecedented consequences,” saying France would stand in full solidarity with Denmark.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is expected to travel to Copenhagen later this week to meet with Danish and Greenlandic leaders, aiming to signal opposition within Congress to Trump’s aggressive push.
*With information from The New York Times
