Trump Renews Push for Greenland and Denmark’s Leaders Tell Washington to Stop

President Donald Trump renewed his demand for control of Greenland on Sunday, saying the United States needs the Arctic island for national security, and the leaders of Denmark and Greenland answered that it is not for sale and not open to takeover. The exchange came a day after U.S. forces captured Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, which raised concern in Copenhagen about what Washington might attempt next, CBS News reported.

Trump spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One and in an interview with The Atlantic. “We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense,” he told the magazine, according to CBS and AFP. On the plane he said, “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security,” and that Denmark “is not going to be able to do it.” He added: “Let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days.” NBC News reported that he also mocked Denmark’s defense efforts on the island, saying “they added one more dog sled,” and claimed that Russian and Chinese ships were “all over the place” around Greenland. NBC quoted Peter Viggo Jakobsen of the Royal Danish Defence College saying such ships “do not exist.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen responded in a statement Sunday. “It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the need for the United States to take over Greenland,” she said, adding that “the U.S. has no right to annex any of the three nations in the Danish kingdom” and urging Washington to “stop the threats against a historically close ally,” CBS reported. CNBC later reported that she pointed out that Greenland is covered by NATO’s security guarantee and that an existing defense agreement already gives the United States “wide access to Greenland.”

Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, wrote on Facebook, “No more pressure. No more hints. No more fantasies about annexation,” NBC reported. Denmark’s ambassador to the United States, Jesper Moeller Soerensen, said Denmark expects “full respect for the territorial integrity” of the kingdom, according to CBS.

The dispute is not new. Trump has talked about acquiring Greenland for about a year, citing its strategic position and critical minerals, and in December named Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as special envoy to the territory, appointments that Denmark and Greenland condemned, according to NBC and CNBC. NBC reported that Denmark’s military intelligence service has, for the first time, classified the United States as a security risk.

Trump’s stated case rests on national security and on Greenland’s strategic location and critical minerals, according to CBS and NBC. The counterargument from Danish officials and several analysts is that the United States already has the access it needs. Peter Viggo Jakobsen told NBC he still thinks a U.S. move on Greenland is “very unlikely.”

Denmark is a founding member of NATO, whose Article 5 treats an attack on one member as an attack on all. Polls have shown Greenlanders overwhelmingly oppose U.S. control, and a strong majority favor independence from Denmark, CNBC reported.