Name: Trump sees acquiring Greenland as a national security priority
Uploaded: 2026-01-07T05:43:23.899Z
Duration: 3 min 3 s
Description: The White House says U.S. President Donald Trump and his team are considering a range of options in efforts to acquire Greenland as the ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro continues to reverberate in the Western Hemisphere.

The White House says U.S. President Donald Trump and his team are considering a range of options in efforts to acquire Greenland as the ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro continues to reverberate in the Western Hemisphere.

Washington

President Donald Trump has stated that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority for the United States, with the White House confirming that military options are being considered. The announcement has caused concern among NATO members, particularly Denmark, which oversees Greenland, and has overshadowed ongoing diplomatic discussions, including those related to Ukraine.

Trump's foreign policy approach has also included recent military operations in Venezuela and demands for U.S. companies to access Venezuelan oil reserves. Critics, including some within his own party, have expressed concern that such actions are damaging international goodwill and could undermine alliances.

Trump sees acquiring Greenland as a national security priority

Donald Trump basked in applause from Republican lawmakers as he celebrated the success of the U.S. military operation in Venezuela. We have the most powerful, most lethal, most sophisticated and most fearsome. It's a fearsome military on planet Earth and it's not even close. You know I've been saying it for a long time, nobody can take us. That projection of strength is now causing alarm as the Trump administration draws up plans to potentially seize Greenland and bring it under American control. In an email to CBC News, White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt said acquiring Greenland is a national security priority. The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue their goal adding the U.S. military is always an option at the commander-in-chief's disposal. Greenland should be part of the United States. Nobody's going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland. The renewed threats targeting Greenland, the autonomous territory of Denmark which is part of the NATO security alliance loomed large over previously scheduled meetings about Ukraine including the prime minister's face-to-face with Denmark's prime minister. We stand with Denmark, we stand with Greenland. Our closest partnership is with the United States and we'll work with everybody to make sure that we move forward together. Other world leaders took a more direct tone. No member of NATO should attack or threaten another member of NATO warned the Polish prime minister. Otherwise the alliance would lose its meaning, he said. In the wake of the U.S. military operation in Venezuela Trump appears emboldened aggressively pushing ahead with his foreign policy agenda demanding American companies gain access to Venezuela's vast oil reserves. I'm also meeting with oil companies, let's go. You know what that's about, we've got a lot of oil to drill. Trump's tone is unsettling to his critics and even some members of his own party. I can see how this will destroy goodwill in Venezuela the same way in Greenland and Canada has destroyed goodwill. The whole idea that Canada will become a 51st state has destroyed goodwill so I think we need to be more careful with the way we treat the world and have more respect. Trump does not have a history of changing his tone. He's moving ahead with his agenda with plans to meet American oil executives Thursday. So Katie, Trump now says Venezuela is going to hand over oil to the U.S. How's that going to work? Yeah, it's a claim the president posted on social media saying Venezuela will turn over up to 50 million barrels of sanctioned oil to be sold at market value with Trump controlling the money. The U.S. has a lot of leverage in this moment to try to make this happen. It has warships docked off the coast of Venezuela and has already been imposing a partial blockade. All right, that is Katie Simpson in Washington.

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