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Greenland: Rubio heading to Copenhagen

Posted by Europe correspondent on

Brussels 12.01.2026 Trump administration officials are going to meet with Danish officials about Greenland this week.
The meeting, which has not been officially announced, occurs after Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress last week that President Trump is interested in purchasing the Danish territory. The White House also said Tuesday officials are discussing a wide range of options for acquiring Greenland, including using the U.S. military to take it by force.

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While Rubio had downplayed the threat of military force in his remarks to reporters, Mr. Trump doubled down on the possibility again on Sunday night, saying, “If we don’t take Greenland, Russia or China will take Greenland, and I am not going to let that happen.”

“I’d love to make a deal with them. It’s easier. But one way or the other, we’re going to have Greenland,” Mr. Trump said Sunday, January 11, aboard Air Force One, echoing his previous statement on Friday when he said, “if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way.”

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Senator Tim Kaine, who met with Danish officials last week, said on Sunday, January 11, that he thinks Democrats and Republicans in Congress would unite to stop any military action aimed at taking Greenland. “We’re not going to do it the hard way, and we’re not going to do it the easy way,” he said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

“Either we’re going to continue to work with Denmark as a sovereign nation that we’re allied with, and we’re not going to treat them as an adversary or as an enemy,” the Democrat said.

President Trump told the New York Times in an interview published last week that ownership of Greenland, the world’s largest island, was important because “that’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success.” President Trump has repeatedly said he feels the U.S. needs to acquire Greenland for defense purposes.

The escalatory language by the President in recent weeks has further underlined already strained relations with European allies. Multiple European diplomats told that they increasingly understand that America’s commitment to the defense of Europe and NATO is no longer as ironclad as it has been over the past decades — or even the past few years of the war in Ukraine, during which the U.S. rallied European countries to unify against Russian invasion of Ukraine. One diplomat said that the Greenland situation is a potential breaking point.

When asked Sunday, January 11, whether he would consider pulling the U.S. out of the NATO alliance, President Trump said, “It would save a lot of money. I like NATO. I just wonder whether or not, if we needed NATO, would they be there for us. I’m not sure they would.”

Louisiana GOP Gov. Jeff Landry, who President Trump appointed as special envoy to Greenland last month, wrote Sunday on X that “History matters. The U.S. defended Greenland’s sovereignty during WWII when Denmark couldn’t.”

“After the war, Denmark re-occupied it—side stepping and ignoring UN protocol. This should be about hospitality, not hostility,” Landry said.

In response, Denmark’s Ambassador to the U.S. Jesper Møller Sørensen said “facts matter too,” and pointed out Greenland “has been a part of the Kingdom of Denmark for centuries.” He also emphasized that last week, all five of Greenland’s parties in Parliament repeated they don’t want to become part of the U.S.

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“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement.

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Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said earlier this month that an American military move to seize control of Greenland would amount to the end of the NATO military alliance.
Denmark is a NATO member, and NATO’s Article 5 states that if a NATO ally suffers an armed attack, all members will consider it an attack on them as well and do what they need to aid the attacked nation.

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“This would be disastrous,” Kaine said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” It wouldn’t just be the end of NATO, it would be America alone.”

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“NATO is already useless. If Denmark falls with Greenland still under its control, the caliphate will be at our doorstep. On top of that, China is preparing for a digital war, a currency war, and (hopefully, this never happens) a hot war. Acquiring Greenland’s strategic location and natural resources, even as a protectorate, would GREATLY help America prepare for any eventuality,” said an American conservative political commentator Glenn Beck.

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