President Donald Trump told global leaders that acquiring Greenland is a core U.S. security interest and said Washington will pursue negotiations rather than force.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States will pursue negotiations to acquire Greenland, framing the effort as a national security imperative while explicitly rejecting the use of military force.
“People thought I would use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force,” Trump said during remarks delivered to world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
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Trump said the U.S. is seeking Greenland for strategic reasons, arguing that the Arctic territory occupies a critical position between major global powers and cannot be effectively secured by any country other than the United States. His comments come amid heightened tensions between Washington and several European nations, including Denmark, which maintains sovereignty over Greenland as a semiautonomous territory.
“All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland, where we already had it as a territory but respectfully returned it back to Denmark not long ago, after we defeated the Germans, the Japanese, the Italians, and others in World War II,” Trump said. “We gave it back to them.”
Trump told the Davos audience that Greenland’s location makes it central to U.S. and allied defense. “Greenland is a vast, almost entirely uninhabited and undeveloped territory sitting undefended in a key strategic location between the United States, Russia, and China,” he said.
He described the island as part of the North American landmass and therefore a matter of U.S. hemispheric defense policy. “This enormous, unsecured island is part of North America on the northern frontier of the Western Hemisphere,” Trump said. “That is our territory. It is therefore a core national security interest of the United States of America.”
Trump cited World War II to argue that Denmark was unable to defend Greenland and required U.S. intervention. “We saw this in World War II when Denmark fell to Germany after just six hours of fighting and was totally unable to defend either itself or Greenland,” he said. “So the United States was then compelled to send our own forces to hold the Greenland territory, and hold it.”
He said American forces established bases on the island at significant expense. “We did at great cost and expense… we literally set up bases on Greenland for Denmark,” Trump said. “We fought for Denmark. We weren’t fighting for anyone else. We were fighting to save it for Denmark.”
Trump criticized the decision to return Greenland after the war and accused Denmark of failing to follow through on later defense commitments. “After the war, which we won, we won it big,” he said. “After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that, but we did it.”
He pointed to a 2019 pledge by Denmark to invest more than $200 million in strengthening Greenland’s defenses. “As you know, they spent less than 1% of that amount. 1%. No sign of Denmark there,” Trump said.
The president emphasized that his interest in Greenland is not driven by natural resources. “Everyone talks about the minerals,” he said. “That’s not the reason we need it. We need it for strategic national security and international security.”
Trump said he is seeking talks “immediately” and argued that a U.S. acquisition of Greenland would bolster, rather than undermine, the NATO alliance. “This would not be a threat to NATO,” he said. “This would greatly enhance the security of the entire alliance, the NATO alliance.”
He added that the U.S. remains the only power capable of securing the island. “No nation or group of nations is in any position to be able to secure Greenland other than the U.S.,” Trump said. “We’re a great power, much greater than people even understand.”
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