Trump renews threat of military force to annex Greenland

President Donald Trump has reiterated his threat of using military force to annex Greenland, despite the semi-autonomous Arctic nation making it abundantly clear that it prefers to remain independent.

NBC anchor Kristen Welker revived the subject with the president during his appearance on Sunday’s Meet the Press and pressed him on whether he was serious about using force to seize the resource-rich island administered by Denmark.

“I don’t rule it out,” he answered. “I don’t say I’m going to do it, but I don’t rule out anything.”

“We need Greenland very badly,” the president said. “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.”

Trump added the prospect of military action was unlikely but “certainly” a possibility.

The president previously expressed his interest in the United States acquiring the territory during his first term, even posting a photoshopped image on X of a Trump International Hotel towering over Greenland’s barren and rocky shores and sparking a diplomatic spat with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen when she dismissed the idea.

Since returning to power, Trump’s repeated overtures have been emphatically rejected by Greenland, Denmark and NATO, with a visit to the island by Vice President JD Vance and his wife Usha in late March that was met with a decidedly chilly reception.

A number of scheduled events were canceled and the couple were reduced to having only a brief lunch on an American military base because of an evident lack of local enthusiasm for their trip.

“President Trump says that the United States ‘will get Greenland.’ Let me be clear: The United States will not get it. We do not belong to anyone else. We decide our own future,” Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said that month.

Welker also asked Trump during their interview about his threats to annex Canada as America’s 51st state, a threat that helped Liberal Party leader Mark Carney win last week’s general election after he vowed to stand up to the man in Washington.

The president admitted it was “highly unlikely” he would use the military against Canada and called Carney “a very nice man” whom he was looking forward to hosting at the White House on Tuesday.