GREENLAND has slammed US President Trump in a show of unity after its election, warning that his repeated threats to take over are “unacceptable”.
During a meeting at the Oval Office with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Thursday, the Republican conveyed confidence in the strategy to acquire the ice island.
Trump had previously pressured Greenland’s PM Mute B Egede about the potential purchase of the territory despite Denmark’s stance that Greenland is not available for sale.
The President gloated to reporters during his meeting with Rutte this week: “I think that it will happen.
“I didn’t give it much thought before, but I’m sitting with a man who could be very instrumental.”
“You know Mark, we need that for international security, not just security, international.
“We have a lot of our favourite players cruising around the coast and we have to be careful and we will be talking to you.”
Now the leaders of all political parties elected to the Parliament of Greenland have hit back at Trump’s comments in a condemnatory joint statement.
Denmark reiterated its position, emphasizing that they will not entertain the idea of Greenland being acquired or governed by another country. They criticized this approach towards allies within the defense alliance as inappropriate and unacceptable.
The statement reads: “We – the leaders of all Parties in the Greenland Parliament – must underscore that Greenland will continue serving ITS people through diplomatic relations, in accordance with international law.
“We all support this wholeheartedly and strong distance ourselves from attempts to create discord.
“Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people, and we (as leaders) stand in unison.”
Prior to Trump’s remarks to Rutte on Thursday, the island’s likely new prime minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen’s Demokraatit reiterated that the people of Greenland “don’t want to be Americans”.
The Republican continues to press for autonomous country due to its strategic location and rich mineral sources – but Denmark has consistently insisted the island is not for sale.
The President has previously stressed that the US needed Greenland for “international world security”.
The autonomous country lies along the shortest route from Europe to North America which is key for the US ballistic missile warning system.
Trump’s latest comments come as the alliance is already on shaky ground with the US and appears to be more fractured than ever – something its adversaries could benefit from.
Diplomatic sources told The Telegraph in February that Germany was among the dozens of European nations holding informal talks over “what Nato troops would do” if Trump followed through on his threats.
One of the questions that was discussed was also whether Article 5, the Western military alliance’s mutual defence clause could be invoked in case of an American invasion of another Nato state.
Most Greenlander’s oppose joining the US, but the majority are in favor of eventual independence from Denmark, opinion polls suggest.
Trump has consistently refused to rule out using military force to seize the island.
And he previously boasted that the people of Greenland wanted to be part of the US.
“I think the people want to be with us,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on January 25.
Trump had also been putting pressure on Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen despite reportedly being told to “f**k off” by the Danes.
The Arctic is increasingly the object of a struggle between international superpowers.
Russia and China have both ramped up efforts to take control of the region, and concerns exist that America has been caught off guard.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also defended Trump’s goals with the island as he highlighted a 1951 treaty that promised to defend the island in the event of an attack.
“If we’re already on the hook for having to do that, then we might as well have more control over what happens there,” Rubio said on The Megyn Kelly Show in January.
“This is not a joke,” he added.
“This is not about acquiring land for the purpose of acquiring land. This is in our national interest and it needs to be solved.”
Trump’s eyeing up of Greenland has sparked the country’s independence movement, with talks called for secession with Denmark.
FROM GREENLAND TO ‘RED-WHITE-AND-BLUELAND’
Trump has been pushed to rename Greenland to Red, White and Blueland and enter negotiations to seize the ice island.
The Republican congressman who proposed the idea added that the Danish territory was vital as a “national security priority.”
Georgia Republican Buddy Carter, 67, unveiled a new legislation in February to encourage Trump to start negotiations to “purchase or otherwise acquire” Greenland.
“America is back and will soon be bigger than ever with the addition of Red, White, and Blueland,” Carter told the New York Post.
The Red, White, and Blueland Act of 2025 would require the secretary of the interior’s team to update federal paperwork with the new name for Greenland.
This department would have just six months to complete the drastic update.
“President Trump has correctly identified the purchase of what is now Greenland as a national security priority, and we will proudly welcome its people to join the freest nation to ever exist when our Negotiator-in-Chief inks this monumental deal,” Carter added.
ISLE TAKE THAT!
EXCLUSIVE by Patrick Harrington, Foreign News Reporter
Trump could storm Greenland and claim it within 24 hours in the “world’s shortest war”, analysts have revealed.
If Trump did invade, America’s military might would end the war in a day, politics professor Anthony Glees told The Sun.
Speaking to The Sun, Glees said Trump will be surrounded by “people who think he is great” – and it means he will be able to go ahead with any wild ideas he has.
Glees said: “In other words, we have to take him seriously.
“And if Trump wanted to take Greenland by force, he could do it in 24 hours.”
Ulrik Pram Gad, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies, told Politico that “there is no defensive capacity in Greenland”.
And it means it would be “the shortest war in the world”.
The conflict would present an “unchartered” situation after the US entered a pact with Denmark in 1951 to defend Greenland against any attack.
The US has a nuclear base on the island that is constantly manned by troops.
Kristian Søby Kristensen, a military researcher at the University of Copenhagen, said: “Who would the Americans be fighting? Their own military?”
Glees said it was likely that, in the event of a US invasion, “there would be no military response to it because it is unthinkable that any Nato member would attack the US”.
