Name: Why does Donald Trump want to take over Greenland?
Uploaded: 2026-01-07T14:30:46.606Z
Duration: 4 min 23 s
Description: Denmark and Greenland are seeking a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the Trump administration doubled down on its intention to take over the strategic Arctic island, a self-governing Danish territory.

Denmark and Greenland are seeking a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the Trump administration doubled down on its intention to take over the strategic Arctic island, a self-governing Danish territory.

Nuuk

President Trump's expressed interest in taking control of Greenland has caused significant concern in Denmark and across Europe. U.S. officials have made strong statements, with some suggesting military action is possible, while Denmark has reiterated its refusal to sell the territory and highlighted Greenland's limited defense capabilities.

European leaders have called for dialogue and issued a joint communique to address the situation. The underlying motivation for U.S. interest appears to be Greenland's vast natural resources, including critical raw materials, as previous American attempts to purchase the island have been rejected.

Why does Donald Trump want to take over Greenland?

For more on the situation in Greenland, I'm joined on the set by our international affairs editor, Philip Tourelle. Philip, how worried should we be about Trump moving in to Greenland? Well, I think there's certainly a lot of concern in Denmark, in the Danish capital Copenhagen. A lot of people worried that because Donald Trump is so unpredictable, nobody really knows what his next move is going to be. And they know that Donald Trump doesn't often say things to be funny. When he does say things, he's serious. And so that leads one to worry that the United States could suddenly decide to move in to take control of Greenland. There also been some quite strong statements out of the United States. Stephen Miller, Trump's special adviser in the White House, has said nobody is going to fight against the United States if U.S. troops go in to seize Greenland. The governor of Louisiana, who's the special envoy for Greenland, who was sent there by Donald Trump, he said, this affair is already closed. We need to talk to the Greenlanders to see how we can move forward. And if they refuse, all options remain on the table. The only person who is sort of backpedaling a bit, as you've been hearing in that report, is Marco Rubio, who's not said that Donald Trump is going to send the troops in anytime soon. But Donald Trump himself has been pretty vociferous about this, saying that the United States needs Greenland for defense of the United States, saying that he would make a decision within the next three weeks or two months. So I think there is everything to worry about the fact that Donald Trump could suddenly move in there. I think he's really at his most dangerous right now. He's got an open boulevard to do basically what he likes before the midterm elections this year. And that's why there's so much concern that it could just be a decision by Donald Trump on the spur of the moment to send troops in there. And that would cause an awful lot of trouble, not only for the Greenlanders, for the Danes, but also for other members of NATO. Well, what means of defense do the Greenlanders have if that happens? Well, they don't have very much. If you look at the defense methods that the Greenlanders could use, an expert from the Danish Institute for Strategic Studies, quoted by Politico, said that if the U.S. decided to attack, it could capture the capital Nuuk within half an hour. As far as the Greenlanders themselves are concerned, they don't really have many methods to fight back. They have a few helicopters. They have a few ships that are based around the capital, a maritime patrol plane, and they have dogs with sledges, which can be used also. It's also pretty unlikely that either the EU or NATO would send in troops to defend Greenland, which would then have to open fire on American forces. All of this is something that is uncharted territory that no one's ever seen before. I think the feeling, not only in Nuuk and Greenland, also in Copenhagen, but amongst other leaders in Western Europe, is that the way forward is to talk to Donald Trump to try to convince him that he could reach his goal some other way. This statement that we've seen, this communique signed by these six European leaders, including France, the United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, Spain, and Germany, is also a show of strength in the face of Donald Trump. I think also this meeting of foreign ministers with Lars-Lukas Rasmussen, the foreign minister of Denmark, could also go towards helping to unblock the situation. Right. You were also talking about different means, perhaps, of an end. We have heard rumors out of D.C. that perhaps the U.S. could buy Greenland. Is that something that Denmark would be willing to do? No. Basically, not. It's not the first time. Already, Andrew Johnson, the president of the United States in 1867, proposed buying it. It was no. And Harry Truman, in 1946, offered $100 million. That was turned down. Denmark is not selling, and they've demanded this meeting with Marco Rubio. I think that what the U.S. could do now is to try to begin a campaign to swing the Greenlanders towards independence, saying that the U.S. will be there to protect them, and that will be a way of then getting hold of Greenland. But bottom line here is that what Donald Trump wants is that natural resources in Greenland. He knows that underneath the ice cap there is graphite, copper, nickel, zinc, gold, diamonds, iron, ore, uranium, 25 out of 34 critical raw materials that one needs, and that's what he's basically interested in.

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