Trump’s relentless pursuit of Greenland threatens to fracture NATO alliance

The relentless avarice of US President Donald Trump in wanting the United States to take control of Greenland is causing significant consternation not only in Denmark and its autonomous territory but in the wider NATO alliance itself.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One on 4 January 2026, “We need Greenland. … We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

The Trump Administration then doubled down on that statement, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying in a statement to CNN on 6 January, “President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region,” adding, “The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal and, of course, utilising the US military is always an option at the Commander-in-Chief’s disposal.”

Trump has also previously refused to rule out military action to take Greenland when asked by reporters.

That raises the bizarre and ominous prospect of Denmark having to invoke NATO’s Article 5 mutual defence contingency against the alliance’s most powerful member.

US political players associated with the Trump Administration have only exacerbated the situation. Katie Miller, the wife of senior Trump aide Stephen Miller, posted an image on the X social media channel on 3 January showing a map of Greenland covered with the US flag accompanied by the comment ‘SOON’. Miller himself commented to CNN following that post that “nobody is going to fight the US militarily over the future of Greenland”.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish television network TV2 on 5 January, “If the United States decides to militarily attack another NATO country, then everything would stop; that includes NATO and therefore post-Second World War security.”

Frederiksen added in a statement, “I have to say this very clearly to the United States: it is absolutely absurd to say that the United States should take control of Greenland.”

On 6 January the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark issued a joint statement that read, “Greenland belongs to its people, and only Denmark and Greenland can decide on matters concerning their relations.”

The joint statement also called for “upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders”.

While Greenland, which is largely self-governing, holds ultimate aspirations for independence, national polls have consistently reflected that the territory’s population of almost 57,000 are firmly against being governed by the United States.

The territory has been associated with both Denmark and Norway since 986 AD and came under full Danish control in 1814.

Greenland’s prime minister, Jens Frederik Nielsen, wrote on Facebook on 4 January following Trump’s statement on Air Force One, “That’s enough now,” adding, “No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of annexation.”

“We are open to dialogue. We are open to discussions. But this must happen through the proper channels and with respect for international law.”

Regarding Denmark’s commitment to the defence of Greenland, Trump inexplicably claimed in his Air Force One comments on 4 January, “You know what Denmark did recently to boost up security in Greenland? They added one more dog sled. It’s true. They thought that was a great move.”

That remark, inevitably, was a falsehood. In October 2025, for example, the Danish government committed DKK 27.4 billion (EUR 3.67 billion) to boosting its military presence in the High North, following initiatives announced in January 2025 valued at around DKK 14.6 billion (EUR 1.96 billion).

In light of that significant Danish commitment to the defence of Greenland and the High North, Trump’s argument about the need for the US to secure the territory makes little objective sense, while the US military has had a military presence on Greenland with Denmark’s blessing since the Second World War, with the current US Pituffik Space Base first established in 1951–52 as Thule Air Base (it was renamed in 2023).

Trump stated at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago a year ago, on 7 January 2025, that the US needed to control Greenland and the Panama Canal for “economic security”. That most likely revealed the most obvious reason why Trump covets Greenland; although about 80% of the territory is covered by ice, it is believed to hold significant amounts of natural resources, including rare earth minerals, uranium and iron, as well as potentially sizeable oil and gas reserves.

Trump has most recently claimed “We need Greenland for national security, not minerals”, yet his coveting of Greenland must inevitably be seen as part of the US president’s Monroe Doctrine 2.0 – or Donroe Doctrine, as he has now labelled it – in which the US is destined to dominate the Western Hemisphere.

The original Monroe Doctrine, announced by US President James Monroe in 1823, was a foreign policy that sought to free the United States from European imperialism only to replace this with its own. Trump’s current ‘Donroe Doctrine’ can hardly be seen as being any different.