In recent weeks, President Trump has threatened to seize Greenland by force. Of course there was never any chance of that happening, any more than that we would “annex” Canada. I don’t know why Trump thinks such threats are useful. In any event, he has now backed off:
Greenland was the main topic of the president’s speech to the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, where he ruled out using military force to take the island.
“I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”
Of course not. I doubt whether an order to our armed forces to invade Greenland would have been obeyed, and certainly an order to attack Canada would not have been obeyed. But Trump’s other announcements, on Truth Social, were more substantial:
The fact that Trump’s proposed tariffs have been canceled is good news, and the financial markets shot up on the report. As to whether there is yet a “framework” in place to address security matters going forward, it seems doubtful.
In any case, I think it is virtually certain that an agreement will be reached with Denmark and Greenland, and perhaps other European countries, that will give us whatever free rein we need to use Greenland to enhance our (and perhaps Europe’s) security. That was never in doubt, so I think we are back where we started, before President Trump started talking about possible military action. Whether anything has been gained in the meantime is questionable.
