WASHINGTON, March 13, 2025 — President Donald Trump isn’t letting go of his Greenland dream. In an Oval Office chat Thursday with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump predicted the U.S. would eventually annex the Arctic island, brushing off Denmark’s long-standing ties to the territory with a casual shrug.
“I think it’ll happen,” Trump said, leaning into his latest geopolitical fixation. “I hadn’t thought about it much before, but here I am with a guy who could make it work.” Nodding toward Rutte, he added, “Mark, we need this for global security. We’ve got all our favorite players sailing around that coast, and we’ve got to keep an eye on them.”
Greenland, an autonomous part of Denmark’s kingdom, has been a Trump obsession since his first term. He questioned Copenhagen’s claim Thursday, saying, “Denmark’s pretty far away from there. Some boat landed 200 years ago, and now they say it’s theirs? I’m not so sure about that.” Historically, Denmark’s hold dates back to Norse settlers in the 10th century and formal control since the 18th, but Trump wasn’t buying it.
The U.S. already has a foothold with Pituffik Space Base in northwest Greenland, a Cold War-era outpost now under the Space Force. “We’ve got people there,” Trump said. “Maybe you’ll see more soldiers heading up. Who knows?”
His comments come fresh off Greenland’s election, where the center-right Demokraatit party snagged a win. Party leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen has pushed a go-slow approach to independence from Denmark, telling Sky News before the vote, “We want to build our own nation—our way.” Many saw the result as a quiet rebuke of Trump’s meddling, especially after he dangled “billions of dollars” and promises to “make Greenlanders rich.”
Trump, though, spun it differently. “That election? Great for us,” he said at a White House briefing. “The guy who came out on top—he’s solid, as far as we’re concerned.” Nielsen’s vision of self-reliance didn’t seem to faze him.
The president also touched on Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who earlier hinted at openness to a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine but left “lots of questions” hanging. Trump called Putin’s take incomplete but kept the door open. “I’ll talk to him,” he said. “Hopefully, Russia does the right thing.”
For now, Trump’s Greenland gambit—part bluster, part strategy—keeps Denmark on edge and NATO allies guessing, all while the island’s 57,000 residents chart their own course.
