Why Trump wants Greenland and what’s standing in his way

As President Donald Trump renews his push to acquire the Danish autonomous territory of Greenland, the White House has described using military force as an option, a stunning threat against a NATO ally that would undermine the decades-old defense pact.

The remarks by Trump and his top aides have spread alarm across European capitals, prompting some of their most forceful responses to date and a warning by Denmark that military intervention would effectively end the NATO alliance. It comes shortly after the United States used its military to seize Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers in a Jan. 5 closed-door briefing that the escalation in rhetoric was part of a wider strategy to ramp up pressure on Denmark to sell the territory, one official familiar with the briefing said. Still, Greenland and Denmark have stood firm in response to pressure from the Trump administration. After a high-stakes meeting at the White House on Wednesday led by Vice President JD Vance, Denmark’s foreign minister said there remained “a fundamental disagreement” over the territory’s fate.

“We didn’t manage to change the American position,” said Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Denmark’s top representative at the talks.

Here’s what to know.

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Why is Greenland so appealing for Trump?

Rich in untapped natural resources, sparsely populated and strategically located in the Arctic, Greenland has been a recurring fixation of Trump’s since his first term in office – when he floated the possibility that the U.S. purchase the island from Denmark, of which it is an autonomous territory. Denmark flatly rejected the prospect.

The island has deposits of diamonds, graphite, lithium, copper, nickel and gallium. It also has oil and rare earth minerals, such as neodymium and dysprosium, of which China and Russia are the top global producers, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry. Rare earth minerals can be used in smartphones, powerful magnets and defense technologies.

The island, which is technically part of the North American continent, is strategically situated along the GIUK Gap – named for the initials of Greenland, Iceland and the United Kingdom – where NATO monitors Russian naval movements in the North Atlantic. Over the weekend, Trump complained that the island was “covered” with Russian and Chinese ships. In response, European officials said that while Moscow and Beijing have increased their activity in the region, most of that is elsewhere in the Arctic, with no current spike in activity near Greenland.

The United States already has a military base on the island, Pituffik Space Base, which was erected in the early years of the Cold War in a strategic location for missile defense and space surveillance missions, according to the U.S. Space Force.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Jan 6. statement that acquiring Greenland is a “national security priority” of the United States that would serve as a vital deterrence to Washington’s adversaries in the Arctic region. “Of course, utilizing the U.S. Military is always an option at the Commander in Chief’s disposal,” she said.

While Rubio has told lawmakers the recent rhetoric is a move to pressure Denmark into selling Greenland, Marion Messmer, director of the International Security Program at the London-based think tank Chatham House, said it was still “extremely concerning” that military action had been “threatened and not ruled out” by White House officials. European leaders had no choice but to take Trump’s preoccupation with Greenland seriously, as “the stakes are too high” to ignore, she said.

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How has Denmark responded?

Greenland has been part of Denmark for over 300 years, initially as a colony and then from 1979 as an autonomous territory. In 2008, the island approved the Self-Government Act, allowing for greater home rule – but responsibility for its defense and foreign policy remains with Denmark.

Trump’s aspirations to purchase Greenland strained relations with Denmark during his first term. When he returned to office last year and the issue arose again, Danish officials reiterated that Greenland was not for sale, but also committed to working with Washington on bolstering the U.S. security presence on the island and potentially increasing U.S. investments in mining. Danish leaders also said they increased spending on Arctic security by $13.7 billion last year.

On Jan. 4, a day after the U.S. military’s operation in Venezuela, Trump told reporters, “Let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has since responded directly to the suggestion the U.S. could use force to seize the island. “If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, everything will stop – including NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of World War II,” Frederiksen told a Danish television outlet.

Lars-Christian Brask, deputy speaker of the Danish Parliament, said Denmark was taking Trump’s comments “seriously,” while reiterating that the U.S. and Denmark were long-term partners and allies.

“One NATO country doesn’t go and require territory of another NATO country,” Brask said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Wednesday. “It’s unheard of and it’s disrespectful.”

Several European leaders also offered their support to Denmark, issuing a joint statement Tuesday that said “the inviolability of borders” is a universal principle and that “Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.” The statement was also backed by Canada.

Ulrik Pram Gad, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said in an interview Wednesday that many Danish people feel a sense of “betrayal” stemming from Trump’s rhetoric, given Denmark’s support for the U.S. in the Middle East and in Afghanistan, where Denmark lost at least 43 soldiers in combat.

“We were loyal allies to the U.S.,” Gad said.

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Does Europe have any leverage over the U.S.?

Both Messmer and Gad noted that European leaders have some options for pushing back on Trump’s plans – although they would face practical challenges.

European countries could review their support for U.S. military bases, and possibly take steps to reduce access or to increase costs that would disrupt the U.S. playbook, Messmer said, noting that Britain in particular had been “a U.S. staging ground for operations in the Mediterranean and the Middle East for a long time.” However, she also noted that the U.S. currently provides “several core functions to NATO.”

Gad added that, while in theory, European nations could use trade or taxation policies to apply pressure to the U.S., in practice such a move could mean “NATO disintegrating.”

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What do Greenlanders think about Trump’s aspirations?

Two surveys conducted by Greenlandic and Danish newspapers last year found that an overwhelming majority of Greenlanders were opposed to annexation or becoming part of the United States, although the Danish poll also found that a majority of respondents supported independence from Denmark. The island has a population of about 57,000, about 90 percent of whom are of Inuit descent.

As an autonomous territory, Greenland has the right to declare independence – and Gad said that Denmark did not have sovereignty over the island, or the power to sell it. “You might speculate that Greenlanders could, under international law, sell themselves to another country but … the likelihood of that happening is totally impossible,” he said.

In interviews with The Washington Post in December, most people were adamant that their homeland wasn’t for sale. The territory’s leadership has said it welcomes investment from foreign countries, but is not seeking new overseers.

On Tuesday, Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said that if made to choose, Greenland would opt to remain with Denmark than be controlled by the United States.

“Greenland does not want to be owned by the United States. Greenland does not want to be governed by the United States. Greenland does not want to be part of the United States,” he said. “We choose the Greenland we know today, which is part of the kingdom of Denmark.”

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Map by Laris Karklis. Mikhail Klimentov contributed to this report.

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https://washingtonpost.com/documents/19319698-7c26-40a2-bc0a-bd0f7487d9ff.pdf

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Video: President Donald Trump asserted that the U.S. is “in charge” of Venezuela, threatened the president of Colombia and repeated his desire to take over Greenland in remarks aboard Air Force One on Jan. 4.(c) 2026 , The Washington Post

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