US 'stepping up' intel gathering on Greenland as Trump pushes to 'take over the island'

In late April, Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen declared that the Arctic country "will never, ever be a piece of property that can be bought by just anyone." And Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is also adamant in saying that U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to acquire Greenland is not open for discussion.

But Trump continues to insist that Greenland is important to U.S. interests.

When NBC News asked Trump, in an early May interview, if he would consider taking Greenland by force, he responded, "I don't rule it out. I don't say I’m going to do it, but I don't rule out anything. No, not there. We need Greenland very badly. Greenland is a very small amount of people, which we’ll take care of, and we’ll cherish them, and all of that. But we need that for international security."

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During his joint address to Congress in March, Trump said, "We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we're working with everybody involved to try and get it. One way or the other, we're going to get it."

Now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the U.S., according to two sources, is "stepping up its intelligence-gathering efforts regarding Greenland" and "drawing America's spying apparatus into President Trump's campaign to take over the island."

In an article published on May 6, WSJ journalists Katherine Long and Alexander Ward report, "Several high-ranking officials under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard issued a 'collection emphasis message' to intelligence-agency heads last week. They were directed to learn more about Greenland’s independence movement and attitudes on American resource extraction on the island. The classified message asked agencies, whose tools include surveillance satellites, communications intercepts and spies on the ground, to identify people in Greenland and Denmark who support U.S. objectives for the island."

According to Long and Ward, this "directive" is "one of the first concrete steps Trump's administration has taken toward fulfilling the president's often-stated desire to acquire Greenland."

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"A collection-emphasis message helps set intelligence-agency priorities, directing resources and attention to high-interest targets," the WSJ reporters explain. "The Greenland order, which went to agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, underscores the administration’s apparent commitment to seeking control of the self-governing island. It forms part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member and a decadeslong ally."

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Read the full Wall Street Journal report at this link (subscription required).