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How Trump could seize Greenland: report

President Donald Trump followed his weekend military incursion into Venezuela with comments that suggested warnings to several other countries, including Cuba, Colombia, Mexico, Iran, and Greenland.

Some Europeans and the leaders of several of the countries he mentioned, appear to be taking him seriously.

“Trump’s rhetoric, including his suggestion over the weekend that Washington may have to ‘do something’ about cartels that are ‘running Mexico,’ is reviving fears in Mexico City,” Politico reported.

Trump said the government of Cuba might just fall on its own, but, as The Washington Post reported, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio “went further, indicating that the United States might be willing to give it a push.”

With Trump having targeted Greenland for months, some of the territory’s leaders are now concerned it could be at risk.

“Danish officials think they know how Donald Trump might seize Greenland,” The Atlantic reported.

“In a late-night Truth Social post, the president announces that the Danish territory is now an American ‘protectorate.’ Because neither Denmark nor its European allies possess the military force to prevent the United States from taking the island, they are powerless to resist Trump’s dubious claim. And as the leading member of NATO claims the sovereign territory of another state, the alliance is paralyzed. Arguing that possession is nine-tenths of the law, Trump simply declares that Greenland now belongs to the United States.”

According to The Atlantic, this hypothetical scenario has been discussed by Danish officials and security experts in recent months. It “may have seemed faintly ridiculous,” but after Trump’s incursion in Venezuela, including his “ensuing insistence that the United States now ‘runs’ Venezuela—it seemed far less so.”

“For months, Danes have anxiously imagined an audacious move by the Trump administration to annex Greenland, whether by force, coercion, or an attempt to buy off the local population of about 56,000 people with the promise of cutting them in on future mining deals. Now those fears are spiking.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has “argued that the president’s threats are credible.”

“Unfortunately, I think the American president should be taken seriously when he says he wants Greenland,” she told the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR).

But The Atlantic warned, “if the U.S. goes down that road, NATO will effectively cease to exist the moment the first military personnel enter Greenlandic territory.”

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Trump’s Greenland obsession 'the ravings of a degenerate monster': analysis

Donald Trump's obsession with annexing Greenland for the US reemerged bigger than ever in the wake of his military raid in Venezuela, but a scathing new analysis from The American Prospect argued that this would be "conquest for its own sake" that would achieve "nothing," slamming Trump's bluster as "the ravings of a degenerate monster."

Over the weekend, U.S. military forces successfully captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, in a raid which some officials estimate killed around 75 people. In the aftermath, Trump and his administration threatened similar actions against other countries and regions, most notably Greenland, which the president has been keen to acquire for the US since his first term. Trump has given various reasons for his obsession with taking Greenland, including its supply of valuable minerals, but has more recently settled on the vague rationale of "national security."

In an unsparing breakdown of the Greenland situation on Thursday, Ryan Cooper, managing editor of The American Prospect, said that most of Trump's explanations for his obsession fall flat in the face of reality. Things are more easily explained, Cooper argued, by the president's desire for "conquest" and his own moral failings.

During past travels to Greenland, Cooper said that locals were uniformly perplexed by Trump's annexation threats, wondering "What could America possibly get from invasion and annexation that it does not already have?"

"The answer on any grounds — morality, self-interest, national security, or plain common sense — is: nothing," Cooper wrote. "These are the ravings of a degenerate monster, the worst person ever to occupy high office in this country, who in his dotage is indulging every one of his numerous awful instincts. This idea is entirely cruel, brutish stupidity."

Cooper's excursion to Greenland also revealed the many logistical holes in Trump's alleged explanations for wanting Greenland. Despite possessing some deposits of valuable minerals, very few of them are "commercially exploitable," being as they are "buried under hundreds or thousands of feet of ice." Greenland is also one of the most remote places in the world, with a terrain ill-suited for industry, given that "there are no internal roads between the few cities... many of the sea-lanes are clogged with ice for half the year," and its "handful of airports are routinely shut down because of fog."

"In short, Greenland is an exceptionally difficult place to scratch out a living, and it’s taken decades of grinding effort from the island’s residents — and a large ongoing subsidy from the Danish government — for it to develop a reasonably prosperous economy," Cooper concluded.

While Cooper agreed that Greenland is a key location for US national security, he noted that the military already has full access to the island and has several bases there, rendering Trump's desire to control the island for defense purposes moot. A military invasion of the island would also risk breaking up NATO, which has helped deter a third world war for nearly a century. Such an operation would risk retaliation from Denmark, which controls Greenland as an autonomous territory, or Canada, and while neither country could pose much of a direct threat to the U.S. military, Cooper argued that it would be relatively easy for them to jeopardize the U.S. nuclear response apparatus by attacking one its many bases in its "elaborate network of military radar installations stretching from western Alaska across northern Canada, Greenland and Britain."

"It likely never occurred to American defense planners that the American president might incite, for no discernible reason, Canada or Denmark to attack critical nuclear deterrence infrastructure that the U.S. military paid billions to construct," Cooper wrote. "The very idea is so paint-blisteringly insane that only one person in a million would even think of it. Unfortunately, the American people elected that person president."

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Greenland on edge after threat from Trump official’s wife

Danish leaders are on edge after President Donald Trump invaded Venezuela to capture Nicolás Maduro. A top Trump insider posted on X that Greenland might be next.

Mere hours after Trump's attack on Venezuela, right-wing podcaster Katie Miller, who is married to top Trump advisor Stephen Miller, posted a map of Greenlandon X with the U.S. stars and stripes across the land.

"SOON," she wrote.

The Guardian explained that the territory is "mineral-rich," making it appealing to Trump's ongoing efforts to secure rare-earth minerals and oil from other countries. Greenland is part of the NATO alliance.

The Guardian quoted Copenhagen’s ambassador to the U.S., Jesper Møller Sørensen, who reposted Miller’s comments, saying, "Just a friendly reminder about the US and the Kingdom of Denmark: We are close allies and should continue to work together as such. US security is also Greenland’s and Denmark’s security. Greenland is already part of NATO. The Kingdom of Denmark and the United States work together to ensure security in the Arctic. The Kingdom of Denmark has significantly boosted its Arctic security efforts - in 2025 alone, we committed USD 13,7 bn that can be used in the Arctic and North Atlantic. Because we take our joint security seriously."

"And yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark," he added.

The Guardian noted that when Trump named former Gov. Jeff Landry (R-La.) as a "special envoy to Greenland," the Louisianan called it an "honor" to work on "mak[ing] Greenland a part of the US."

On Saturday, Landry celebrated Trump's arrest of Maduro.

“Having served as a sheriff’s deputy and AG, I have seen the devastating effects of illegal drugs on American families. With over 100k opioid-related deaths annually, I am grateful to see a President finally take real action in the war on drugs,” he posted on X.

“Thank you @realDonaldTrump for holding individuals like Maduro accountable," he added.

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Greenland PM tells Trump 'enough' after annexation threat

During his first presidency, Donald Trump was often described as an "isolationist" whose "America First" outlook rejected the hawkish views of neocons and echoed Patrick Buchanan's paleoconservative ideology. But during his second term, Trump has taken an imperialistic turn — from pushing for regime change in Venezuela to wanting to annex both Greenland and Canada. Outgoing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), a MAGA firebrand turned Trump critic, believes that Trump is now betraying the "America First" platform he campaigned on in 2016, 2020 and 2024.

Early Saturday morning, January 3, the news broke that U.S. forces had captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and taken him to New York City — where he is now being held in a detention center. Meanwhile, Trump is doubling down on his desire to acquire Greenland, a colony of Denmark. Both Greenland Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen are adamantly opposed.

In a Sunday, January 4 post on Facebook, Nielsen called Trump out — writing, "No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of annexation. We are open to dialogue. We are open to discussions. But this must happen through the proper channels and with respect for international law."

Euro News' Aleksandar Brezar reports that the Trump Administration's "unprecedented operation in Venezuela" and "capture of Nicolas Maduro" has " reignited fears for Greenland."

On Air Force One, Trump told reporters, "We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it. You know what Denmark did recently to boost up security in Greenland? They added one more dog sled. It's true. They thought that was a great move."

Frederiksen, meanwhile, is joining Nielsen in calling Trump out.

In an official statement, the Danish prime minister said, "I have to say this very clearly to the United States: it is absolutely absurd to say that the United States should take control of Greenland."

Frederiksen called for Trump to quit "threatening its historic ally," pointing out that Denmark — "and thus Greenland" — is, along with the United States, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Brezar notes, "European leaders have repeatedly warned Trump against threatening sovereign borders after he refused to rule out military force to take Greenland. France on Monday, (January 5), expressed its 'solidarity' with Denmark following U.S. President Donald Trump's fresh threats to take over the autonomous Danish territory of Greenland. 'Borders cannot be changed by force,' French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux told television channel TF1."

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Kansas GOP senator​ rejects Trump’s plot to invade Greenland

President Donald Trump has sparked global outrage after suggesting once again that the United States military could invade the island of Greenland and make it a colony of the United States.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran told the Huffington Post's Igor Bobic that the U.S. has no business trying to take Greenland.

“It’s none of our business. We’re not going to take over another country. That's our ally. Also, the demise of NATO," said Moran.

Greenland is currently a territory of Denmark, a NATO ally.

Top Trump aide Stephen Miller this week posted a photo of Greenland on X, with the caption reading "SOON." Her husband on Monday told CNN's Jake Tapper that Denmark has no claim to Greenland and that no one could beat the U.S. military in a battle for the island.

"It wouldn't be military action against Greenland. The Greenland has a population of 30,000 people, Jake," said Miller. "The real question is, by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? What is the basis of their territorial claim? What is their basis of having Greenland as a colony of Denmark? The United States is the power of NATO, for the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests. Obviously, Greenland should be part of the United States."

"Nobody's going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland," he later added.

The U.S. established a 1951 defense agreement with Greenland and built Pituffik Space Base, meaning the United States already uses Greenland for national security purposes.

"Pituffik SB supports Missile Warning, Missile Defense and Space Surveillance missions from the solid-state phased-array radar operated by the 12th Space Warning Squadron (12 SWS) and Satellite Command and Control through the Pituffik Tracking Station operated by the 23rd Space Operations Squadron, Detachment 1 (Det-1)," the Space Force site said.

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'Totally unacceptable': Trump’s latest Greenland escalation sparks outrage

President Donald Trump has not abandoned his efforts to acquire Greenland — indeed, he is pressing ahead. On Sunday night, the president named Louisiana Republican Governor Jeff Landry, a Trump ally, as a special envoy to the autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, a decision that angered both Greenlanders and Danes.

“Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Landry quickly responded: “It’s an honor to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S. This in no way affects my position as Governor of Louisiana!”

Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, blasted the move.

“I’m deeply upset about the appointment and the statement, which I find completely unacceptable,” Løkke Rasmussen told Danish media TV2, as CNBC reported.

Trump, CNBC noted, “has refused to rule out the use of force” to acquire Greenland, whose “leaders have criticized the U.S. administration’s calls for the country to become a U.S. territory.”

The New York Times likened the appointment of a special envoy to the situations in Ukraine and the Middle East, at least in one respect — in each case, the president “tapped someone close to him to manage all of these as priorities.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul called the appointment of a special envoy “outrageous.”

“Imagine,” he wrote, “if Mexico appointed a special envoy to make Louisiana a part of Mexico? Our ally Denmark deserves more respect than this.”

Valerie Morkevičius, an associate professor of political science, charged that Governor Landry is proclaiming “his support for violating an ally’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

She noted: “US foreign policy these days operates at the corner of shame and shambolic.”

The Times reported that “the appointment drew condemnation from Greenland and further deteriorated the relationship between the United States and Denmark, which used to be close allies.”

“You cannot annex other countries,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark and Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen of Greenland said in a joint statement on Monday. “Not even by invoking international security. Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders, and the United States must not take over Greenland.”

Mikkel Runge Olesen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, called Landry’s appointment a “significant escalation.”

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Morning Joe goes off on 'Trump's 'insanity' for attempting to take Greenland

Secretary of State Marco Rubio attempted to quell threats from President Donald Trump to seize the Danish island of Greenland by telling lawmakers that Trump wants to use taxpayer dollars to purchase the island, its minerals and 30,000 people.

Speaking about the attempt to seize or buy the island against the will of the residents, MS NOW co-host Joe Scarborough unleashed fury on Trump and his efforts to pillage across the world.

"Let me just say, again, because I understand that there are a lot of people that say things like this, that it's a military option, that I don't know, maybe, maybe they're playing with coloring books before they say things like this," began an annoyed Scarborough. "Let me explain again. The United States GDP is around $25, $26, $27 trillion. Europe's GDP is around $ 23- $25 trillion. Russia's is like $1.4 trillion. It's how powerful we are when we stand shoulder to shoulder next to our allies that help us defeat Nazism. That helps us defeat communism, that will help us together overcome the threat from China."

Instead, Scarborough said, Trump is focused on Venezuela and Greenland at a time "China is eating our lunch across the globe."

"We're talking about all of these 19th-century pursuits when China is rushing headfirst into the 21st-century race militarily, economically, diplomatically and most importantly, Jim Vandehei would certainly say technologically on AI," he continued.

"This is insanity to talk about going into Greenland, Venezuela," he unleashed. "We don't know what it's going to be like moving forward. And it doesn't look great right now. But Greenland — that shatters the international order that has benefited the United States time and time again. It's madness."

At another point, he gave a quick history lesson "for idiots out there that say, oh, well, America's been suckers." He noted that the U.S. has been in charge of the world order since 1947.

Actions by the U.S. "led to the American century, led to American dominance, led to America's military by and far being the strongest military in the history of mankind, led us to be the most powerful country when it comes to soft power, led us to become the most powerful economic machine in history in world history," he said.

Now, that new world order is beginning "to crumble piece by piece" as Trump undermines "the NATO alliance" and begins to suggest the U.S. would invade a NATO ally.

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'Read a book man': Trump’s Greenland envoy schooled on American history

President Donald Trump's special envoy to Greenland got a history lesson from viewers who watched him be interviewed by CNBC's "Squawk Box."

Host Joe Kernen asked if "President Trump [is] ready to actually seize Greenland, and would that be OK?"

Jeff Landry, the envoy, said he wants to discuss Louisiana with people in Greenland. Landry is the governor of the state, but was nominated to represent the United States in negotiations with Greenland. He said that Trump has decided to support the Monroe Doctrine, which opposes European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere.

"Solidifying the Western Hemisphere is good for the United States and good for the states that are in the United States, like Louisiana. And Greenland is in the Western Hemisphere," said Landry.

Kernen said he understands the argument but isn't certain it complies with international law.

"Denmark is a NATO country. This is a territory of Denmark, at least on paper, at this point. So it would seem to be something where you'd actually have to look at how the courts would view it. How international law would view it. International perception. This has Europe — a lot of people in Europe talking about it, almost being like, Vladimir Putin and Ukraine," Kernan said.

"I disagree," said Landry. "When has the United States engaged in imperialism? Never. Europe has engaged in imperialism. The reason the Danish have Greenland is because of imperialism.'

The internet ran to fact-check and mock the governor.

"I mean... Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Puerto Ricans, Guamanians, Panamanians for quite a while, Marshallese," rattled off Broadway lawyer Michael Salerno. "They might all have a different opinion that Jeff Landry on whether the U.S. has ever engaged in imperialism."

"Jesus f—— Christ man. Read a book. Learn something, anything, about US history. The US has never engaged in imperialism[?]" said neuroscientist Kevin Wright.

"Apparently Jeff Landry skipped the day in history class when we covered the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, Samoa," said communications and campaign advisor Joel Mendelson.

"Jeff Landry isn't a very good advertisement for the history curriculum at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette," said producer Tamara Keel.

"Part of the problem with our representation in Congress is that these fools don’t understand American history,” said Rosalind Garcia.

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Trump’s Greenland takeover would be 'a suicidal maneuver': foreign policy expert

Any attempt to try and seize Greenland would be a massive catastrophe and ultimately spiral out of control, wrote Casey Michel, head of the Human Rights Foundation's Combating Kleptocracy Program.

Writing for Foreign Policy, Michel explained, "it's long past time" to treat Trump's Greenland threats as a very "real likelihood."

Trump has long talked about how important Greenland is to the U.S., but after Trump invaded Venezuela and seized its leader, fears abound among those in the European Union who are unsure if Trump is willing to go to war with NATO.

Such an attack "would be not only a morally reprehensible crime, but a national security crisis of a sort the U.S. has not seen in decades. There’s good reason to think it would be the greatest foreign-policy blunder since at least the Vietnam War," Michel continued.

In the immediate fallout, Michel said that little would change for Americans, while Greenland would suddenly add to the non-voting representative in Congress. However, the rest of the world would be quickly destabilized to the detriment of American interests. Denmark would react first, followed by a broader response from Europe. But the most important of the problems would be that NATO is effectively dead.

"Given how many European nations still have territory in the Western Hemisphere — from the Azores to French Guiana to the British Virgin Islands — which of America’s allies could be assured that they wouldn’t be next? For Trumpist unilateralists, this may matter little. But for those who view America’s allies as its greatest asset in an era of rising geopolitical tension, spiking that alliance system — all for an island in which American military power is already assured — would be a suicidal maneuver, without modern compare," wrote Michel.

Europe wouldn't be alone. Canada would likely get involved as taking Greenland would become a "bulwark against Canadian maneuverability or power projection in the North Atlantic: a gargantuan doorstop on Canada’s eastern border, isolating Canada that much more from Ottawa’s remaining allies in Europe."

Trump has also talked about seizing Canada, so these threats to other areas have become quickly problematic for the neighbors to the north.

"It will also mean something that no one in the administration has apparently considered: Canada going nuclear. Nuclear discourse in Canada has accelerated already, thanks largely to Trump’s rhetoric," said Michel. "Watching Trump suddenly encircle Canada would effectively guarantee a nuclear arms program in Canada itself — with all of the threats, uncertainty and destabilizing factors attendant. A Greenland seizure, coming alongside the actions of other nuclear-armed imperialists expanding their borders, would all but assure a new nuclear arms race among non-nuclear powers, realizing that these weapons may be the only guarantee of safety and sovereignty."

Meanwhile, the more engaged the U.S. is with Venezuela, Canada and Greenland, the easier it is for Russia to seize more territory in Ukraine and perhaps even more. It also keeps eyes off the road for China, which has long wanted to invade Taiwan.

"A suddenly destabilized world — in which colliding spheres of influence reign, with subalterns and trampled nations chafing against new colonial overlords — would ripple across the globe, presenting a national security disaster the likes of which the U.S. has not seen since the 1930s, when a similarly Hobbesian world birthed totalitarianism, fascistic empires and the most devastating war the globe had ever seen," he wrote.

It's all possible, Michel said. However, imperialism almost always leads to imperial overreach and eventual collapse.

"The ingredients are all there for a thrust into Greenland to be a debacle of era-defining proportions — and a national security crisis whose ramifications are only just beginning," Michel closed.

Read the full column here.

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Greenland resident says local population views Trump as 'a small person'

President Donald Trump has recently renewed his calls to make Greenland a part of the United States, but residents of the Danish territory are virtually united in their opposition to Trump's plan.

That's according to a Thursday report by CNN correspondent Nic Robertson, who said that Greenlanders are taking Trump's threats of a military occupation seriously. Robertson noted that only six percent of residents support joining the U.S., and that while a majority of Greenlanders want to eventually become an independent nation, they don't want that process to happen immediately. He also said Trump is viewed in a particularly harsh light by some residents.

"Just speaking to one person after we arrived here, he said to me, 'President Trump thinks he's a big man, but we don't see him that way. We think of him as a small person,'" Robertson said. "They like their life here. He tells me they're worried that it's going to change irreversibly if the United States takes control."

Robertson further reported that both Danish officials and local elected officials in Greenland are "worried" about Trump's threats. He added that the foreign minister of Denmark specifically requested a meeting with Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Marco Rubio next week to "get nuance into the conversation."

"They feel that the United States doesn't understand what Denmark offers, what Greenland has on tap for them already in terms of resources and potential troop deployments," Robertson said. "The foreign minister of Denmark also said that we need to bring the rhetoric down, tone it down."

The CNN correspondent observed that Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (who is also the former prime minister of Denmark) has "used even stronger language" about Trump's threats. According to Robertson, Rasmussen has warned that if Trump takes Greenland by force, it would mark "the end of NATO."

"The European Union is standing lockstep behind Denmark and Greenland right now," Robertson said.

Watch Robertson's segment below:

- YouTube www.youtube.com

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UK 'drawing up plans' to deploy military to Greenland to protect it for Trump

U.K. officials met with their European counterparts from Germany and France to begin a mission deploying troops to the Arctic for President Donald Trump.

The Telegraph reported Sunday that the military is "drawing up plans" now for a possible North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) mission on the Danish island that the U.S. president has said he "needs" for national security purposes. While Trump has claimed that he would buy the island, his top aide, Stephen Miller, said that Greenland has only 30,000 people who live there, and claimed no one would fight the U.S. if it invaded.

The plans remain in the early stages, but it could involve "British soldiers, warships and planes being deployed" with the aim of protecting Greenland from hostile actors like Russia and China.

The hope is that with the NATO allies protecting the island, Trump may "abandon his ambition to annex the strategic island," said the report.

It could allow Trump to de-escalate his threats of a takeover and brag that Europe was paying for policing the area rather than the American taxpayers. Greenland is a territory of Denmark, which is a NATO member. However, it seeks independence from any parent country.

Trump appears to believe that Russia or China will invade Greenland and wants to do it earlier than they do.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the Telegraph, “We share President Trump’s view – Russia’s growing aggression in the High North must be deterred, and Euro-Atlantic security strengthened."

“NATO discussions on reinforcing security in the region continue, and we would never get ahead of those, but the UK is working with Nato allies to drive efforts to bolster Arctic deterrence and defence," he added. "The U.K. will continue to work with allies – as we always have – on operations in our national interest, protecting people back at home.”

Read the full report here.

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