Donald Trump said that the United States needs Greenland for its national security.
“We need Greenland for our national security“, Trump told reporters on board his plane en route to Washington from West Palm Beach, Florida, where he spent the Christmas and New Year holidays at his Mar-a-Lago estate. According to him, this is a strategic issue.
“There are Russian and Chinese ships all over Greenland“, Trump said, adding that Denmark is “unable to strengthen the security of Greenland“. “They added another dog team“, the US president said. Trump, however, avoided answering a question about the pretext under which the United States hopes to gain control of Greenland.
“I will just say that we need Greenland for national security, and the European Union needs it, and they know that,“ he said.
On Sunday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen stressed that Greenland is part of the kingdom and called on the United States to stop its threats, saying that it makes no sense for Washington to take control of the island. She was responding to Trump's remarks in an interview with The Atlantic that the United States needs control of Greenland for defense purposes.
On March 13, 2025, Trump expressed confidence that his country would annex Greenland. On March 4, he announced that he would support the decision of the island's population to annex the territory to the United States. Previously, Trump had repeatedly stated that Greenland should join the United States. He threatened to impose high trade tariffs on Denmark if it did not give up the island. During his first term, Trump proposed buying Greenland. The Danish and Greenlandic authorities rejected the idea.
Greenland is part of Denmark as an autonomous territory. In 1951, Washington and Copenhagen, in addition to their NATO obligations, signed the Greenland Defense Treaty. Under it, the United States pledged to defend the island from possible aggression.