White House Says Military Force an ‘Option’ to Acquire Greenland, Escalating Tensions with NATO Ally Denmark

Diplomatic Escalation

The White House said President Donald Trump is not ruling out military force to take control of Greenland, a move that would dramatically escalate a dispute with NATO ally Denmark. The conflict has resurfaced following the ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump is considering multiple avenues to acquire the Arctic island. “President Trump has made it clear repeatedly that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority for the United States and vital to deterring our adversaries in the Arctic,” Leavitt said.

“The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, the use of the U.S. military always remains an option for the commander-in-chief,” she added. Reuters had reported the remarks earlier on Tuesday.

The statement is likely to inflame relations between Washington, Denmark, and Greenland’s leaders, who have firmly rejected Trump’s renewed demands for control over the island. The president has signaled interest in making Greenland part of the U.S. since his first term but has sharpened his rhetoric after a military operation was launched last week to remove Maduro from power in Venezuela.

In an effort to de-escalate, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said the governments of Denmark and Greenland have requested a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Greenland’s Foreign Minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, wrote in a Facebook post that the talks would aim to “discuss the strong statements made by the United States regarding Greenland.”

“When we want to have talks, it is because we believe that part of this discussion is based on a misunderstanding of things,” Rasmussen told reporters after a meeting of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, according to local media. “We think it makes sense to try to arrange a meeting with our American counterparts in order to clarify some of the misunderstandings that may exist.”

European Warnings

Earlier on Tuesday, European leaders issued a joint statement warning that Trump must respect the territorial integrity of Greenland and Denmark. They stressed that Greenland falls under NATO’s collective defense umbrella as part of the Kingdom of Denmark and that Arctic security should be handled collectively with NATO allies.

The foreign ministers of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden also released a joint statement on Tuesday with a similar message, calling for respect for the “fundamental principles of the UN Charter and international law, including the inviolability of borders.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned on Monday that any American attack on Greenland would mean the end of the NATO alliance and “the security that has been established since the end of World War II.”

U.S. officials, however, have continued to escalate their rhetoric. In an interview with CNN, White House Senior Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said that in a world “governed by power,” the United States has the right to acquire the territory.

“This is of course something we cannot agree to,” Rasmussen said in response. “And Greenland does not aspire to agree to it, so it is of course a red line.”