Next stop, Nuuk? U.S. allies fear Trump may target Greenland after Venezuela
Copenhagen may be 5,200 miles away from Caracas, but the thrum of the helicopters that grabbed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro will have been deafening in the Danish capital.
Trump’s longtime threats to seize Denmark’s territory of Greenland have been widely derided in Europe, mocked even, as outlandish talk that could surely never translate into the United States effectively invading a NATO ally.
But Trump’s willingness and ability to capture Maduro — and his suggestion that Greenland and its own vast natural resources may be next — have raised worries that there may be more to this Arctic ambition.
It has triggered the strongest protests yet against Washington’s hostile overtures, including from longtime U.S. allies in Europe.
“No more pressure. No more hints. No more fantasies about annexation,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a Facebook post Sunday.
“When the president of the United States talks about ‘we need Greenland’ and connects us with Venezuela and military intervention, it’s not just wrong. This is so disrespectful,” he added. “Our country is not an object of superpower rhetoric. We are a people. A land. And democracy. This has to be respected. Especially by close and loyal friends.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen added Sunday that Trump talking about taking over Greenland “makes absolutely no sense” and that “the U.S. has no right to annex” it.
Trump and his team have for months said they want to take over the vast semi-autonomous Danish territory, citing its strategic importance and mineral wealth. After Maduro’s capture, he doubled down on the idea, telling reporters aboard Air Force One late Sunday, “We need Greenland, from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it, I can tell you.”
He mocked local efforts to defend the sparsely populated island, saying “they added one more dog sled” that would be no match for the “Russian and Chinese ships” he claimed were “all over the place” around the territory.
(That rationale is disputed by experts: Peter Viggo Jakobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College, told NBC News that these ships “do not exist.”)
Adding to the alarm, Katie Miller, a right-wing podcast host and the wife of Trump adviser Stephen Miller, posted an image of Greenland superimposed with the American flag and the caption “SOON!”
Though Trump stunned the world by sending aircraft and personnel to grab Maduro in Caracas, intervention in Greenland would arguably carry greater risk of escalation.
Denmark’s NATO membership carries with it the implied protection of Article 5 — the promise that an attack on one ally will be treated as an attack on all. However, the U.S. is by far the biggest contributor to NATO, and has historically been seen as the ultimate guarantor behind its pledge of mutual self-defense.
Germany indicated Monday that European allies would be prepared to step in.
“Since Denmark is a member of NATO, Greenland will, in principle, also be subject to NATO defense,” Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told reporters in Lithuania. “And if there are further requirements to strengthen defense efforts concerning Greenland, then we will have to discuss this within the framework of the alliance.”
