Trump tells NATO leader he wants to annex Greenland: "I think we will."

WashingtonNATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had arrived in Washington with the aim of convincing Donald Trump that the Alliance is still necessary, but he hadn't anticipated running headlong into the tycoon's expansionist ambitions. The US president insisted to the leader of the Atlantic Alliance that he "needs" Greenland "for national security" and spoke about a possible annexation: "I think we'll do it. We really need it for national security." Greenland is an autonomous territory that is part of Denmark, a NATO ally. As if Rutte weren't already clear on what Trump wanted, Trump pointed at him and said: "I'm sitting with a man who could be pivotal."

"I think that's why NATO might have to get involved in some way, because we really need more, and for national security it's very important. You know, we already have a couple of bases in Greenland and we have a few troops. And maybe you'll see more and more troops going there," Pete Hegseth argues, half-jokingly: "What do you think, Pete? No, don't answer me."

Trump has stated that the main reason for wanting to annex Greenland is to be able to "protect" it amidst the growing importance of the Arctic as one of the new routes in global trade. Climate change, which is causing the ice to melt, facilitates navigation through these waters. "The routes are very direct to Asia, to Russia, and there are ships everywhere. We need protection, so we'll have to come to an agreement on that," stated Trump, who asserted that Denmark "is not capable" of providing the necessary protection in this context.

Interest in new trade routes in this region is such that Trump announced during the meeting that the United States will purchase 48 icebreakers, ships designed to break ice and make the waters of frozen regions navigable. "Russia, as you know, has about forty, and we only have one large icebreaker," he stated.

A long-held aspiration

The president's statement to the NATO secretary appears to be a challenge to Denmark and Greenland itself, which have already expressed their rejection of the president's expansionist ambitions. In this regard, Trump has stated that he would support the Greenlandic independence movement if they were admitted as a new state within the United States. Greenland parliamentary elections The elections held just this week were won by the Liberal Party, which, despite being pro-independence, favors a slower roadmap.

Greenland's outgoing Prime Minister, Múte Egede, deemed Trump's statements unacceptable and said he would convene the leaders of all parties to reinforce their joint rejection. "The President of the United States has once again brought up the idea of annexing us (...) Enough is enough," he stated in a Facebook post.

Although it now seems to have become a main item on his agenda, the reality is that during his first term, Trump already expressed a desire to acquire Greenland. Although he did so with somewhat more discretion at the time. On several occasions, he approached the Danish government with an offer to buy the Arctic island. Despite the rejection, Trump has continued to insist and now proposes more than just the purchase option.