Coloured houses covered with snow, seen from the sea in Nuuk, Greenland, on March 6, 2025. Greenland, a 56,000-strong territory with a majority-Inuit population, has repeatedly rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s demands for annexation.Evgeniy Maloletka/The Associated Press
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is planning to meet with Greenlandic and Danish officials next week as Donald Trump’s administration refuses to rule out conquering Greenland with a military invasion.
The White House also said on Wednesday that it had made arrangements with Venezuela’s authoritarian regime for the U.S. to take that country’s oil and sell it on international markets.
And Mr. Trump called on Congress to raise the country’s military budget to US$1.5-trillion, a US$600-billion increase, to build a “Dream Military” as he outlines an increasingly bellicose and interventionist foreign policy.
Mr. Rubio, on Capitol Hill to brief lawmakers about the military strike on Venezuela that captured the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, told reporters that he would accept a request from Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt and her Danish counterpart, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, to discuss Washington’s threats to seize the Arctic island, which is an autonomous territory of Denmark.
Canada, allies rally behind Greenland amid U.S. annexation threats
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“I will be meeting with them next week. We will have these conversations with them then,” Mr. Rubio said.
He said the U.S. prefers diplomatic engagement to military force but would not rule out attacking Greenland. “If the President identifies a threat to the national security of the United States, every President retains the option to address it through military means.”
Mr. Trump has wanted to buy Greenland since his first term, framing it as necessary for countering Russian and Chinese influence in the Arctic. Greenland is also believed to possess significant critical mineral deposits.
Since the attack on Venezuela, the White House has become more threatening on Greenland and other foreign policy files. This has drawn stark warnings from Denmark that an invasion of the territory, which is part of NATO, would end the defence alliance and the international order that has existed since the end of the Second World War.
Denmark has consistently said it is up to the people of Greenland to determine their future. Greenland’s elected government has repeatedly rejected Mr. Trump’s overtures and the prospect of joining the U.S. polls poorly there.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a press briefing on Wednesday that “all options are always on the table” for Mr. Trump in dealing with Greenland. Mr. Trump’s procedure is to try diplomacy first and order military action if that doesn’t work, she said.
U.S. President Donald Trump reasserted on Monday (Jan. 5) that his country needs Greenland for national security reasons, and said a newly appointed special envoy would "lead the charge," drawing sharp criticism from Denmark and Greenland. Why is he pushing to take control of Greenland?
Reuters
“He tried ardently to strike a good deal with Nicolás Maduro and he told him, ‘I will use the United States military, and you will not like it, if you don’t take such a deal,’ and look what happened,” Ms. Leavitt said.
Earlier in the week, Stephen Miller, one of Mr. Trump’s top advisers, told CNN: “Nobody is going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.”
On Wednesday, Ms. Leavitt said the Trump administration was also working with Delcy Rodríguez, Mr. Maduro’s vice-president who is serving as the country’s acting president, for Venezuela to turn over at least 30 million barrels of oil, which would then be brought to the U.S. The oil is currently under a U.S. blockade, and Mr. Trump has threatened to attack Venezuela again if Ms. Rodriguez doesn’t follow his orders.
Explainer: Why Trump wants to seize Greenland, and its history as a Danish territory
On Truth Social, Mr. Trump said proceeds from the sale of the oil “will be controlled by me, as President.” Ms. Leavitt said Mr. Trump will meet at the White House on Friday with U.S. oil executives to sort out how to implement the President’s plan to give them control of Venezuela’s oil infrastructure.
The opposition to Mr. Trump’s talk of taking Greenland reached into his Republican Party’s congressional caucus on Wednesday, with several members of the group – who have mostly refused to fight back against controversial parts of the President’s agenda – voicing strong objections.
“It’s very, very unsettling,” Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said, adding that she would “hate” the U.S. to pursue its bid to take over an unwilling Greenland.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis took aim at Mr. Miller in a speech on the chamber floor, saying the adviser was an “amateur” who should be fired. “I’m sick of stupid,” he said. “This nonsense on what’s going on with Greenland is a distraction.”
House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson insisted that the White House would use only peaceful means of trying to acquire Greenland. “We have no intention of being at war, we have no reason to be at war with Greenland,” he said.
In a social-media post, Mr. Trump said he was increasing his military spending demand from Congress to US$1.5-trillion, to “keep us SAFE AND SECURE” in “these very troubled and dangerous times.” He did not indicate what areas specifically he wanted the money spent on.
Danish Prime Minister asks Trump to stop threatening Greenland
What exact terms Mr. Trump would offer Greenland or Denmark for the territory to change hands is unclear.
Greenland’s 56,000 residents receive annual Danish subsidies equivalent to about $700-million, accounting for some 20 per cent of the island’s economy. That helps pay for a Nordic-model welfare state, including universal health care, something the U.S. does not provide in any of its states or territories.
Greenland has had the ability to declare independence from Denmark since 2009 but has so far not exercised that right.
It is not clear what the U.S. would gain from taking control of Greenland. The U.S. military already runs a base on the island and has, in the past, had an even larger presence there.
On Tuesday, Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen vowed to put the equivalent of $19-billion into additional military spending on Greenland. “Denmark would like to continue to be an ally of the United States,” he said in a statement.
The U.S. has previously bought land from other countries, including the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803 and the Alaska Purchase from Russia in 1867. It has also acquired territory via invasion, such as during the Mexican-American War of 1846 to 1848, after which the U.S. annexed half of Mexico’s then-territory.
But these moves took place before the rise of contemporary international law and the post-Second World War security order.
In addition to Greenland, Mr. Trump has also in the past week threatened to topple Colombian President Gustavo Petro by force and talked about sending U.S. troops to Mexico to fight drug cartels.
Such comments have particularly alarmed European leaders amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and questions about Mr. Trump’s commitment to NATO.
If the U.S. invaded Greenland, “the international community as we know it, democratic rules of the game, NATO, the world’s strongest defensive alliance, all of that would collapse if one NATO country chose to attack another,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said this week.