President Donald Trump created an international firestorm on Thursday after suggesting that “NATO might have to get involved” to help the United States invade Greenland in the interest of “international security” – while questioning Denmark’s claim to the autonomous territory.
The presidential remarks – the latest in a series of threats of a U.S.-led takeover of the island – came as Trump addressed reporters in the Oval Office while sitting next to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
"Denmark is very far away,” Trump said Thursday. “A boat landed there 200 years ago or something. They say they have rights to it. I don't know if that's true. I don't think it is, actually."
He later appeared to joke to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about Greenland: “Maybe we’ll see more and more soldiers go there, I don’t know – what do you think about that, Pete? Don’t answer that Pete,” as he and others chuckled.
The escalation in Trump’s insistence of a U.S. takeover of Greenland quickly drew international condemnation – including from Rasmus Jarlov, a member of Demark’s parliament, and chair of Denmark’s Defense Committee.
“We do not appreciate the Secr. Gen. of NATO joking with Trump about Greenland like this,” Jarlov posted on X moments after the remarks. “It would mean war between two NATO countries. Greenland has just voted against immediate independence from Denmark and does not want to be American ever.”
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“How is this real life?” Molly Jong-Fast, a novelist and political journalist, asked her Bluesky followers.
The remarks prompted attorney and longtime political observer David Lurie to warn in a Bluesky post: “Trump is now threatening [to] pull a Crimea on Greenland. He may do a joint invasion with Vlad Putin.”
“The US annexing Greenland involves two NATO states. Ridiculous,” wrote X user Akash Maniam, who posts about Ukraine disinformation. He later added in a follow-up post: “Imperialism 101 - deny the sovereignty & value of others while claiming the absolute necessity of annexing them.”
Writer and prominent anti-Trump conservative Tom Nichols reminded his Bluesky followers that the president: “Holds the codes to… well, you know.”
“There’s been a lot of debate over whether Trump means this as a threat or it’s a troll,” attorney and political activist Will Stancil wrote on Bluesky. “But the actual answer is it’s both. He dropped it as a throwaway line but his clinical narcissism does not allow him to believe any idea of his is less than perfect and brilliant, so he’s become committed to it.”