President Donald Trump and his administration are exploring various avenues to secure Greenland, with military intervention remaining “always an option,” the White House confirmed on Tuesday.
The statement follows suggestions from one of Trump’s senior advisers that America might be prepared to take control of the Arctic territory through force, triggering a strong show of European solidarity with Denmark and Greenland.
“President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region.
“The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal,” the White House declared.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz united to affirm that Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, “belongs to its people” delivering an uncommon European challenge to the White House.
“It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland,” the three leaders declared in a joint Tuesday statement alongside the prime ministers of Denmark, Italy, Poland, and Spain.
Starmer reiterated British backing for Denmark during a press conference in Paris, where Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were in attendance.
“I’ve been very clear as to what my position, the position of the U.K. government, is,” Starmer declared.
However, Stephen Miller, Trump’s powerful deputy chief of staff for policy, stated on Monday that “nobody [was] going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland” when pressed to dismiss the use of force.
Speaking to CNN, Miller suggested military action wouldn’t be necessary to secure control over Greenland due to its limited population.
The previous day, Trump had declared that America required Greenland “very badly.”
Trump’s remarks reignited concerns about a potential U.S. invasion of the largely self-governing territory in a bid to seize control of its oil, gas, and rare earth resources as Arctic ice continues to thaw.
This follows a U.S. military operation in Venezuela that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife on 3rd January.
On Saturday, Trump announced that a U.S. military strike had successfully apprehended Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his spouse, Cilia Flores.
Maduro and Flores are confronting drug-trafficking allegations, with Trump stating America would “run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition” during a 3rd January press conference.
