The White House said on Tuesday that using the US military to acquire Greenland is “always an option” as President Donald Trump’s administration explores ways to seize the Arctic territory, according to a Guardian report.
“President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilising the US military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal”.
The statement came as European leaders rallied behind Denmark in opposition to Trump’s designs on the territory. France, Germany, Britain and other nations issued a joint statement on Tuesday with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, urging the US to respect sovereignty, noting that Arctic security was a top priority for NATO.
“Greenland belongs to its people,” the statement said. “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”
Greenland’s government requested an urgent meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Greenland’s minister for foreign affairs Vivian Motzfeldt and Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen to discuss “the US’s claims about our country”.
Rasmussen told Danish public broadcaster DR that a meeting would allow Denmark and Greenland to correct Trump’s claims about Russian and Chinese ships around Greenland and Chinese influence through investments. “We do not share this image that Greenland is plastered with Chinese investments … nor that there are Chinese warships up and down along Greenland,” he said.
Rasmussen spoke after an emergency session of Denmark’s foreign policy committee and defence ministry with a single agenda item: “The Kingdom’s relations with the United States.”
Denmark’s Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said Denmark had spent billions to increase security in Greenland, not, as Trump claimed this week, by adding just “one more dog sled”.
Frederiksen has warned that a US attack on a NATO ally would mean the end of the military alliance and “post-second world war security”. It would, she said, be the end of “everything”.
Trump renewed his calls for a US takeover after the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Saturday. The following day, Trump said he needed Greenland “very badly”, escalating tensions between the US, the semi-autonomous Danish territory and Europe.
Greenland has repeatedly said it does not want to be part of the US. A poll found just 7% of Americans support a military seizure of Greenland.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller suggested in a CNN interview that Denmark does not have a right to the Arctic territory, which is a former Danish colony and remains part of its kingdom. Whilst the mineral-rich island, home to 56,000 people, has control over most internal affairs, Copenhagen continues to oversee its foreign and security policy.
Miller also claimed military intervention would not be needed because “nobody is going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland”. The CNN interview came after Miller’s wife, rightwing podcaster Katie Miller, posted a photo of the US flag draped across a map of Greenland, captioned “SOON”.
In a private briefing to lawmakers on Monday, Rubio said the administration would prefer to buy the island from Denmark rather than invade it, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Strategically situated between the US and Russia, Greenland is viewed as an increasingly important defence hub and an emerging geopolitical battleground as the climate crisis and growing militarisation raise tensions in the region. Trump has said Greenland is critical to US national security, though the US already operates a base there.
European leaders mostly downplayed Trump’s interest in seizing Greenland for years, but Maduro’s swift capture by elite US forces has changed the response.
At a press conference in Paris on Tuesday, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who announced new commitments from the Trump administration to defend Ukraine, was asked pointedly: “What value do these commitments have on the very day that at the highest levels of government in Washington they are talking about seizing the sovereign territory of a fellow NATO member?”
Starmer said he stood by his Monday statement that “Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark must determine the future of Greenland and nobody else”.
In Washington, top congressional Republicans sought to downplay the likelihood of military action in Greenland, with Senate majority leader John Thune telling Politico: “That to me is not something anybody is contemplating seriously.”
Congressman Ryan Zinke, a Republican from Montana who served as interior secretary during the first Trump administration, said he was not surprised Trump would decline to rule out military force to seize Greenland. “The president rarely rules out any option,” he told NewsNation on Tuesday, adding: “But Greenland is different. Greenland is obviously a NATO partner.”
Democrats warned that Trump’s threats should be taken seriously. US Senator Ruben Gallego, a Democrat from Arizona, has introduced legislation to “prohibit the use of funds for military force or other hostilities against Greenland”. In a post on X, he accused Trump of wanting Greenland simply to possess a “giant island with his name on it”.
“He wouldn’t think twice about putting our troops in danger if it makes him feel big and strong,” Gallego wrote. “The US military is not a toy.”
(information from The Guardian)
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