WASHINGTON DC – US President Donald Trump on Friday doubled down on his long-running fixation with Greenland, offering one of his starkest warnings yet that the US could seize control of the territory against the wishes of its people and its allies.
“We are going to do something on Greenland whether they like it or not,” Trump told reporters as he hosted oil executives at the White House to discuss investments in Venezuela.
If Washington doesn’t act, he argued, “Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor.”
The remarks marked the latest escalation in Trump’s years-long campaign to bring the vast, mineral-rich Arctic island under US control – either by purchasing it from Denmark, which governs Greenland as an autonomous territory, or by using military force.
A familiar fixation, sharpened rhetoric
Trump framed the issue as a matter of national security, brushing aside fierce pushback from Greenlandic leaders, the Danish government and European allies who have repeatedly rejected any suggestion that the territory is for sale.
“So we’re going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way,” Trump said.
The US president again claimed credit for “saving” NATO while insisting he still supports the alliance, even as his comments cut directly against one of its core principles.
“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have a NATO right now,” Trump said. “But we’re not going to allow Russia or China to occupy Greenland, and that’s what’s going to happen if we don’t.”
‘You don’t defend leases’
Pressed on why the US would need to “own” Greenland when it already maintains military installations there, Trump dismissed the idea that existing basing agreements are sufficient.
“Because when we own it, we defend it,” he said. “You don’t defend leases in the same way. We have to own it.”
He repeated the point later, warning that without outright ownership, the US would fail to protect the territory.
“If we don’t do it, China or Russia will,” Trump said, adding that while he gets along well with leaders in both countries, he remains “very disappointed” with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Allies alarmed, critics mobilize
The comments immediately reignited concern among US allies and national security veterans, who see Trump’s rhetoric as not only unnecessary but dangerously destabilizing.
In a rare joint statement, a group of prominent former diplomats, defense officials and national security advisers from both Democratic and Republican administrations warned that threatening to take Greenland by force would fracture US alliances and hand a strategic gift to its rivals.
“The current President’s threats to use military force or other coercive measures to take Greenland away from our ally Denmark is strategically foolish,” the former officials wrote, arguing it could “potentially destroy our more than 76-year-old NATO alliance with Europe and Canada.”
Trusted ally at risk
Denmark, the former officials emphasized, has been one of Washington’s most reliable partners for decades – from founding NATO and fighting alongside US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq to hosting critical American military infrastructure in Greenland itself.
Under existing agreements, the US already operates Pituffik Space Force Base, a key hub for missile-warning, space surveillance and Arctic security.
Danish and Greenlandic officials, the statement noted, have offered to discuss expanded cooperation rather than confrontation.
If Washington’s real concern is growing Russian and Chinese activity in the Arctic, the former officials argued, the answer lies in strengthening NATO cooperation – not threatening an ally.
As one former senior official involved in the statement put it privately, “Musing about taking Greenland doesn’t make America safer – it weakens the alliances that actually keep Russia and China in check.”