President Donald Trump on Friday suggested that he would expand his legally contested and costly tariff regime to target any countries that don’t support his plan to conquer Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory opposed to a US takeover.
While he was supposed to be speaking about rural healthcare at the White House, Trump recalled threatening Europe with tariffs on pharmaceuticals and said that “I may do that for Greenland too. I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that.”
Responding to a clip of Trump’s remarks on social media, journalist Adam Cochran cited multiple federal laws and called his comments “impeachable.”
Meidas Touch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski called the president “the Mad King.”
Congressman Darren Soto (D-Fla.) wrote: “Double whammy! Trump wants to raise prices on Americans to help invade Greenland, which we don’t want.”
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Polling has shown that the US seizing Greenland is unpopular with not only Greenlanders but also Americans. As Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Denmark and Greenland’s foreign ministers met earlier this week, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that just 4% of US voters think it would be a “good idea” for Trump to take the territory by military force, and only 17% of approve of the president’s push to acquire it by any means.
Other countries have rallied around Greenland and Denmark amid Trump’s threats, and troops from several nations that have long been allied with the United States—including France, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom—arrived at the Arctic island this week.
The European Union’s defense commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, said Monday that he agreed with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s assessment that a US takeover of Greenland “will be the end of” the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers was in Copenhagen on Friday to meet with Danish and Greenlandic leaders, including Frederiksen. The Associated Press reported that the delegation leader, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), thanked the hosts for “225 years of being a good and trusted ally and partner,” and said that “we had a strong and robust dialog about how we extend that into the future.”
The only Republicans to join the delegation were Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Thom Tillis (NC), who isn’t seeking reelection. Murkowski told journalists, “Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset, and I think that’s what you’re hearing with this delegation.”
“I think it is important to underscore that when you ask the American people whether or not they think it is a good idea for the United States to acquire Greenland, the vast majority, some 75%, will say we do not think that is a good idea,” Murkowski added, according to Reuters. “This senator from Alaska does not think it is a good idea.”
As the Hill detailed Thursday:
A Republican senator who requested anonymity said Trump’s talk of taking over Greenland has generated more opposition from Republicans in Congress because of the dire implications such an aggressive move would have for the future of NATO.
“You see, more than in other incidents, pushback by Republican senators on this topic,” the lawmaker said.
“I have no understanding how this is an idea to begin with,” the senator added with exasperation, warning that taking Greenland will undermine NATO and put Ukraine at greater risk.
On Thursday, after another bipartisan meeting with Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said that “what I thought was remarkable is that they talked to us about how the entirety of Greenland and the entirety of Denmark right now is focused on whether there is an invasion coming from the United States.”
“This would be a cataclysm, the United States going to war with Europe,” he warned. “We’re trying to show Denmark that they have support on both sides of the aisle in Congress, but we need our Republican colleagues to speak up right now.”
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