PARIS (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has renewed a push for the United States to take ownership of Greenland from Denmark, arguing that the island’s strategic position would be important to defending the country with a missile-defense system he has dubbed “Golden Dome.”
Trump has cited what he described as Greenland’s role in the kind of nuclear fight he says could involve Russia, China and the United States, and he has linked that argument to a broader campaign that has unsettled Greenlanders and long-time European allies. Trump has also pointed to the “Golden Dome” as a multibillion dollar system he says he wants to be operational before his term ends in 2029. In a Truth Social post Saturday, he wrote: “Because of The Golden Dome, and Modern Day Weapons Systems, both Offensive and Defensive, the need to ACQUIRE is especially important,”.
The push has come with shifting signals. The article describes another roller-coaster week in the relationship between Washington and Greenland’s semiautonomous Danish government, as Trump again pushed for U.S. ownership before apparently backing off and announcing Wednesday a “framework of a future deal” on Arctic security that is described as unlikely to be the final word.
Here is what the reporting says about why Greenland is discussed in nuclear defense—and how some specialists assess Trump’s rationale for taking control of the territory.
ICBM routes and Arctic overflight
The strategic logic starts with how intercontinental ballistic missiles would move if fired at each other. In a hypothetical nuclear war, ICBMs tend to take the shortest direct route on a ballistic trajectory into space and back down, and many of those shortest flight paths between China or Russia and the United States would pass over the Arctic region.
The article gives concrete examples. It says Russian Topol-M missiles fired from the Tatishchevo silo complex southeast of Moscow would fly high over Greenland if targeted at the U.S. force of 400 Minuteman III missiles housed at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana and Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. It also says Chinese Dong Feng-31 missiles could overfly Greenland if targeted at the U.S. Eastern Seaboard.
Trump has used that geographic logic in public remarks. Speaking Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he said: “If there is a war, much of the action will take place on that piece of ice. Think of it: those missiles would be flying right over the center,”.
Pituffik Space Base radar and early warning
The article says Greenland hosts farseeing early-warning radars that function as “the Pentagon’s eyes” for any missile attack. The northernmost facility is at Pituffik Space Base, which the article notes was previously called Thule Air Base and was renamed in 2023 with the remote location’s Greenlandic name, recognizing an Indigenous community that was forcibly displaced by the U.S. outpost’s construction in 1951.
According to the article, Pituffik’s position above the Arctic Circle and roughly halfway between Washington and Moscow lets it “peer” with radar over the Arctic region—into Russia and toward potential flight paths of missiles launched toward U.S. targets. Pavel Podvig, described as a Geneva-based analyst specializing in Russia’s nuclear arsenal, said: “That gives the United States more time to think about what to do,” and that “Greenland is a good location for that.”
The article describes the facility’s AN/FPS-132 radar as two-sided and solid-state. It says the radar is designed to quickly detect and track ballistic missile launches, including from submarines, to help inform the U.S. commander in chief’s response and provide data for interceptors trying to destroy warheads. It says the radar beams out for nearly 5,550 kilometers (3,450 miles) in a 240-degree arc and, at its furthest range, can detect objects no larger than a small car, according to the U.S. Air Force.
Specialists question Trump’s “lease” and ownership argument
The reporting says Trump has argued the U.S. needs to own Greenland to defend it. At the World Economic Forum, Trump said: “You can’t defend it on a lease,”.
But defense specialists cited by the article said that logic does not fit the way the United States has used the Pituffik radar for decades without owning Greenland. The article also points to other allies’ capabilities. It says the United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force operates an early warning radar at Fylingdales in northern England, serving both U.K. and U.S. governments by scanning for missiles from Russia and elsewhere and northward toward the polar region. The article notes the unit’s motto is “Vigilamus” — Latin for “We are watching.”
French nuclear defense specialist Etienne Marcuz, a former nuclear defense worker for France’s Defense Ministry and now with the Foundation for Strategic Research think tank in Paris, directly challenged Trump’s logic. Marcuz said: “Trump’s argument that Greenland is vital for the Golden Dome — and therefore that it has to be invaded, well, acquired — is false for several reasons,”. He said one reason is that a radar exists in the United Kingdom and, as he put it, “to my knowledge there is no question of invading the U.K.” He also said new sensors already being tested and deployed would reduce Greenland’s importance, saying: “And, above all, there are new sensors that are already being tested, in the process of being deployed, which will in fact reduce Greenland’s importance.”
“Golden Dome” interceptors and Greenland access under 1951 agreement
The article says Greenland’s location could make it useful for stationing “Golden Dome” interceptors meant to destroy warheads before they reach the continental United States. It also points to Trump’s written argument for including Greenland in the defensive system. Trump wrote in a post last weekend that “highly complex system can only work at its maximum potential and efficiency … if this Land is included in it,”.
However, the article says the U.S. already has access to Greenland under a 1951 defense agreement. It adds that experts say Denmark likely would have accepted a U.S. request for an expanded military footprint before Trump escalated the dispute over the territory, but they said authorization is more uncertain after the deterioration in relations.
Marcuz offered a snapshot of that change. He said: “Denmark was the most compliant ally of the United States,” and that “Now, it’s very different.” He added: “I don’t know whether authorization would be granted, but in any case, before, the answer was ‘Yes.’”