President Trump threatened Friday that he may use tariffs to punish countries that don’t support a U.S. takeover of Greenland.
At a White House event on rural healthcare, Trump described how he had used tariff threats to pressure European countries regarding prescription drug prices. He then suggested he might use the same approach in his quest to have the U.S. control Greenland.
“I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security,” he said. “So I may do that.”
Trump’s latest threat comes amid continued tensions over his quest to control the icy Arctic island, which is a territory of Denmark, a NATO ally. A bipartisan congressional delegation met Friday with Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers in Copenhagen to try to ease tensions and reaffirm friendly relations.
Some congressional Republicans are speaking out forcefully against Trump administration threats to take control of Greenland, in some cases making clear that there would be strong congressional pushback to any U.S. military action.
“Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset, and I think that’s what you’re hearing with this delegation,” Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska told reporters.
Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said it was wrong for Trump to bully an ally. “It’s utter buffoonery to think that we should compel Greenland to be part of the United States,” he said.
The congressional concerns follow meetings in Washington, D.C., this week that highlighted the deep disagreements between the Trump administration and Danish, Greenlandic and European officials on the future of Greenland.
“It's clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said Wednesday after a White House meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rasmussen called Trump’s push for U.S. control of the island “totally unacceptable,” though he said the parties would continue to talk.