Trump says anything under US control over Greenland is ‘unacceptable’ – National
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that NATO should help the US get Greenland and anything under US control is unacceptable, hours before Vice President JD Vance held Danish and Greenlandic officials for talks.
In a letter on his social media website, Trump also stated that the US “needs Greenland for national security purposes.” He also added that “NATO should lead the way for us to find it” and that if not Russia or China – “AND THAT WILL NOT HAPPEN!”
“NATO is becoming more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote. “Anything less than that is unacceptable.”
Greenland, an independent territory of NATO ally Denmark, is at the center of a national storm as Trump insists he wants to own it – and residents of its capital, Nuuk, say it is not for sale. The White House has not ruled out taking an Arctic island by force.
Vance will meet with Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt in Washington later Wednesday to discuss Greenland.
The people of Greenland want the US to withdraw
Along a snow-covered highway in Nuuk, foreign journalists and camera crews have been stopping passers-by every few meters (feet) to ask their thoughts on the crisis that Denmark’s prime minister has warned could lead to the end of NATO.
Tuuta Mikaelsen, a 22-year-old student, told The Associated Press in Nuuk that he hoped US officials would get the message to “back off.”
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Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told a news conference in Copenhagen on Tuesday that “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU.”
Asked later Tuesday about Nielsen’s comments, Trump responded: “I don’t agree with him. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know anything about him. But, that’s going to be a big problem for him.”
Greenland is strategically important because, as climate change causes the ice to melt, it opens up opportunities for shorter trade routes to Asia. That would also make it easier to extract and transport untapped deposits of the precious minerals needed for computers and phones.
Trump said in a post on Wednesday that Greenland is “vital” to the United States’ Golden Dome missile defense system. He also said that he wants the island to increase security in the United States and cited what he says is the threat of Russian and Chinese ships as a reason to control it.
But both experts and Greenlanders doubt that.
“The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market,” says heating engineer Lars Vintner. He said he often goes sailing and hunting and has never seen Russian or Chinese ships.
His friend, Hans Nørgaard, agreed, adding that “what came out of Donald Trump’s mouth about all these ships is just a dream.”
Denmark said the US – which already has troops – could develop its bases in Greenland. For that reason, “security is just a cover,” Vintner said, suggesting that Trump actually wants to own the island to make money from its untapped natural resources.
Nørgaard said he filed a police complaint in Nuuk against Trump’s “aggressive” behavior because, he said, American officials are threatening the people of Greenland and NATO.
Mikaelsen, a student, said Greenlanders benefit from being part of Denmark, which provides free health care, education and tuition fees, and “I don’t want the US to take that away from us.”
After the White House meeting, Løkke Rasmussen and Motzfeldt, along with the Danish ambassador to the US, will meet with the senators of the Arctic Caucus in the US Congress.
Two legislators – Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican – introduced bipartisan legislation that would prohibit the use of funds from the US Department of Defense or the State to occupy or control Greenland or the sovereign territory of any NATO member country without the consent of the Northern Alliance or the Atlantic Council.
A bipartisan delegation of lawyers is headed to Copenhagen at the end of the week to meet with Danish and Greenlandic officials.
Last week, Denmark’s main European allies joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in issuing a statement that Greenland belongs to its people and that “it is for Denmark and Greenland, and they alone, to decide on matters affecting Denmark and Greenland.”
On Wednesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told RTL radio that his country plans to open an embassy in Greenland on February 6, following last summer’s decision to open an embassy.
“To attack another NATO member would not make sense, it would be against the interests of the United States. And I hear many voices in the United States saying this,” said Barrot. “So this secret must end.”
© 2026 The Canadian Press
