President Donald Trump said Wednesday that NATO should help the U.S. acquire Greenland and anything less than having the island in U.S. hands is unacceptable, hours before Vice President JD Vance was to host Danish and Greenlandic officials for talks.
In a post on his social media site, Trump reiterated his argument that the U.S. “needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security.” He added that “NATO should be leading the way for us to get it” and that otherwise Russia or China would — “AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!”
“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote. “Anything less than that is unacceptable.”
Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, is at the center of a geopolitical storm as Trump insists he wants to own it — and residents of its capital, Nuuk, say it isn’t for sale. The White House hasn’t ruled out taking the Arctic island by force.
Vance, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, is to meet Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt in Washington later Wednesday to discuss Greenland.
(AP)
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It is unlikely that Trump would get the 2/3 vote to ratify a treaty. Trump’s threat of seizing a Danish province is already undermining NATO and creating a gigantic opening for China and Russia (and without NATO, Russian missiles would have an easy time reaching the United States since NORAD relies on access to Canadian facilities which will unavailable as Canada will stay in NATO). However Trump has talked about isolationism, and withdrawing the US from NATO (and giving up all European bases) will leave the United States unable to operate globally (e.g. imagine intervening in the Middle East if the nearest American base is in Florida).