President Donald Trump on Friday continued to press for U.S. management of Greenland, telling reporters: “We’re going to do one thing on Greenland whether or not they prefer it or not.”
“As a result of if we do not do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor,” Trump stated as he hosted oil executives on the White Home to debate investments in Venezuela.
The president has repeatedly stated he desires to take over Greenland both by shopping for the autonomous island territory or through the use of army drive, calling it a matter of nationwide safety despite fierce pushback from Greenland, Denmark and European allies.
“Greenland just isn’t on the market. I believe our Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and our Overseas Minister Vivian Motzfeldt has made it very, very clear. Our nation belongs to the Greenlandic individuals,” Jacob Isbosethsen, Greenland’s head of illustration to america, stated to journalists on Thursday after a closed-door assembly with members of Congress.
When requested on Friday for a way a lot cash he believed it might take to get Greenland on board together with his proposal, Trump stated, “I am not speaking about cash for Greenland but. I would speak about that.”
“I would wish to make a deal, you already know, the simple means. But when we do not do it the simple means, we’re going to do it the onerous means,” Trump stated.
President Donald Trump attends a gathering with oil executives within the East Room of the White Home, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington.
Saul Loeb/AFP through Getty Photographs
Excessive-profile Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have additionally poured chilly water on Trump’s purpose to accumulate Greenland.
“I believe it has been made clear from our Danish mates and from our mates in Greenland that that future doesn’t embody a negotiation. There is no willingness on their half to barter for the acquisition or the change in title to their land, which they’ve had for therefore lengthy,” Sen. Roger Wicker, the highest Republican on the Senate Armed Companies Committee, stated after assembly with Isbosethsen and Denmark’s Ambassador to america Jesper Møller Sørensen on Thursday.
“There is no such thing as a cause for a negotiation round who controls Greenland as a result of Greenland and america and Denmark have been allies. We share the identical values, we’ve labored cooperatively collectively,” Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the highest Democrat on the Senate Overseas Relations Committee, stated after the assembly.
Homes coated by snow are seen on the coast of a sea inlet of Nuuk, Greenland, March 7, 2025.
Evgeniy Maloletka/AP, Information
Home Speaker Mike Johnson, one among Trump’s prime allies, notably dismissed any assertion that the U.S. would use army motion to accumulate Greenland.
“I do not suppose anyone’s severely contemplating that. And within the Congress, we’re definitely not,” Johnson stated at a information convention on Wednesday.
Nonetheless, Vice President JD Vance on Thursday stated to take Trump at his phrase on the problem and defended the administration’s curiosity within the island territory.
“I assume my recommendation to European leaders and anyone else can be to take the president of america severely,” Vance advised reporters at a press briefing with White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
“No. 1, Greenland is basically necessary, not simply to America’s missile protection, however to the world’s missile protection. No. 2, we all know that there are hostile adversaries which have proven a variety of curiosity in that exact territory, that exact slice of the world,” Vance stated.
Subsequent week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is predicted to satisfy together with his counterparts from Denmark and Greenland after they requested an pressing assembly with him.
ABC Information’ Allison Pecorin and Jay O’Brien contributed to this report.
