US President Donald Trump said the United States “needs Greenland”, making the assertion a day after appointing a special envoy to the Arctic island—a move that triggered a sharp backlash from Washington’s European allies. Trump said his interest in the geopolitically significant territory, home to roughly 57,000 people, an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark and located in North America, was not driven by rare earths or the prospects of mineral extraction.
“If you look at Greenland—along the entire coastline—you see Russian and Chinese ships everywhere. We need it for national security. We’re going to have to get it,” he said at a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Monday.
In Denmark and Greenland, there had been hopes that Trump’s interest in transferring control of the island from Copenhagen to the United States would fade after he first floated the idea in 2019, during his initial term, and then mentioned it again upon returning to the White House at the start of this year. Those expectations were upended this week when Trump, without consulting Nuuk or Copenhagen, appointed Louisiana governor Jeff Landry as his special envoy to Greenland—a role typically reserved for conflicts such as Ukraine or the Middle East.
European leaders moved swiftly to rally behind Denmark. Support for Copenhagen was voiced, among others, by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, as well as the foreign ministers of Germany, Norway and Sweden. “Territorial integrity and sovereignty are fundamental principles of international law. They matter not only to the European Union, but to countries around the world,” von der Leyen said, stressing that security in the Arctic is one of the EU’s priorities.
Trump’s claims about the presence of large numbers of Russian and Chinese vessels off Greenland’s coast are disputed by Greenlandic and Danish authorities, who say ships from those countries have not been observed in the region in recent years. Chinese business interest in Greenland has also waned after several failed attempts in the 2010s to take part in mining and tourism projects.
Trump again criticised Denmark’s stewardship of its semi-autonomous territory. “Denmark hasn’t spent a penny. It has no military protection whatsoever,” he said on Monday evening. The United States, however, remains the only country with a military base in Greenland—its presence dating back to a 1951 agreement with Denmark that led to the establishment of what is now the Pituffik Space Base. Over the decades, the US military footprint on the island has shrunk markedly—from a peak of roughly 15,000 personnel to about 200 today.
In response to mounting pressure from Washington, Denmark has announced a significant expansion of its own military presence in the region. In October, Copenhagen said it planned to spend $4.2bn on forming two military units in the Arctic, establishing a joint Arctic command headquarters in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, and procuring ships, aircraft, drones and radar systems.
Trump also questioned the historical basis of Denmark’s sovereignty over the island. “They say Denmark was there 300 years ago or so, on some ship. But we were there on ships too, I’m sure. So we’re going to have to sort all this out,” he added.
Opinion polls periodically show that a majority of Greenlanders support the idea of independence from Denmark, but only if the island’s economy is strengthened. A poll conducted in January found that 85 percent of Greenlanders do not want to become part of the United States.