U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Friday that he may punish countries with tariffs unless they back the U.S. controlling Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, according to reporting by the Associated Press.
Trump’s comments came as a bipartisan Congressional delegation met Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers in Copenhagen, with members of Congress saying the goal of the visit was to strengthen dialogue and lower tensions in the Danish capital. In the AP report, the remarks were tied to Trump’s broader push for a U.S. takeover of Greenland.
For months, Trump has insisted that the U.S. should control Greenland, and he said earlier this week that anything less than the Arctic island being in U.S. hands would be “unacceptable.” During an unrelated White House event about rural health care, the AP report said, Trump recounted that he had threatened European allies with tariffs on pharmaceuticals and then connected that approach to Greenland. “I may do that for Greenland too,” he said. “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,” he added, according to the AP account. The report said Trump had not previously mentioned using tariffs to try to force the issue.
Earlier this week, Denmark and Greenland’s foreign ministers met in Washington with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, AP reported. That encounter did not resolve the deep differences, but it produced an agreement to set up a working group, while Denmark and the White House offered sharply diverging public views on the group’s purpose, the report said.
The AP report said European leaders have insisted the working group is only for Denmark and Greenland to decide matters concerning the territory. Denmark also said it was increasing its military presence in Greenland in cooperation with allies, the report added.
In Copenhagen, AP reported, senators and House members met Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers, including Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. Delegation leader Sen. Chris Coons thanked the hosts for “225 years of being a good and trusted ally and partner,” and said that “we had a strong and robust dialogue about how we extend that into the future.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, told reporters after the meetings that the visit reflected a strong relationship over decades and “it is one that we need to nurture.” She said, “Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset, and I think that’s what you’re hearing with this delegation,” according to AP.
The AP report said Murkowski emphasized Congress’s role in spending and in conveying messages from constituents. She also said that when Americans are asked about whether they think the United States should acquire Greenland, the vast majority—about 75%—would say they do not think it is a good idea. Along with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, Murkowski has introduced bipartisan legislation that would prohibit the use of U.S. Defense or State department funds to annex or take control of Greenland or any NATO member state’s sovereign territory without that ally’s consent or authorization from the North Atlantic Council, AP reported.
AP said the tone contrasted with language coming from the White House. Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic politician and a Danish parliament member who took part in the Friday meetings, said the AP report quoted her describing threats toward Greenland as originating from the U.S. side. “We have heard so many lies, to be honest and so much exaggeration on the threats towards Greenland,” she said. “And mostly, I would say the threats that we’re seeing right now is from the U.S. side.”
The AP report also pointed to Greenland’s domestic political stance. Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said that if Greenland had to choose between the United States and Denmark, it would choose Denmark, NATO, the Kingdom of Denmark, and the EU, quoting him as saying: “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU.”
Separately, AP reported on criticism from the Inuit Circumpolar Council, which represents around 180,000 Inuit from Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia’s Chukotka region on international issues. The chair of the Nuuk-based group, Sara Olsvig, told AP in Nuuk that the White House’s persistent statements that the U.S. must own Greenland offer “a clear picture of how the US administration views the people of Greenland, how the U.S. administration views Indigenous peoples, and peoples that are few in numbers.” She said the issue is “how one of the biggest powers in the world views other peoples that are less powerful than them. And that really is concerning,” and the AP report said she added that Indigenous Inuit in Greenland do not want to be colonized again.