Trump administration officials to meet with Danish officials about Greenland on Wednesday, sources say
Trump administration officials are expected to meet with Danish officials about Greenland on Wednesday, diplomatic sources told CBS News.
The meeting, which has not been officially announced, comes after Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Congress last week that President Trump was interested in purchasing the Danish territory. The White House also said Tuesday that officials were discussing a wide range of options. for the acquisition of Greenlandnotably by using the American army to take it by force.
While Rubio had downplayed the threat of military force in his remarks to reporters, Mr. Trump doubled down on the possibility on Friday, saying: “I’d like to get to an agreement the easy way, but if we don’t do it the easy way, we’ll do it the hard way.”
Sen. Tim Kaine, who met with Danish officials last week, said Sunday he believes Democrats and Republicans in Congress will unite to stop any military action to take Greenland. “We’re not going to do it the hard way, nor the easy way,” he said. “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
“Either we’re going to continue to work with Denmark as a sovereign nation that we’re allied with, and we’re not going to treat it as an adversary or as an enemy,” the Democrat said.
Mr. Trump told the New York Times in an interview published last week that ownership of Greenland, the world’s largest island, was important because “I think it’s what is psychologically necessary to be successful.” Mr. Trump has repeatedly said he believes the United States should acquire Greenland for defense purposes.
The president’s incisive language in recent weeks has further strained already strained relations with European allies. Several European diplomats told CBS News that they increasingly understand that the U.S. commitment to the defense of Europe and NATO is no longer as strong as it was in recent decades — or even the last few years of the war in Ukraineduring which the United States rallied European countries to unite against Russian aggression. A diplomat told CBS News that the situation in Greenland poses a potential breaking point.
Republican Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, whom Mr. Trump nominated special envoy to Greenland last month, wrote on Sunday on X that “History matters. The United States defended Greenland’s sovereignty during World War II when Denmark could not.”
“After the war, Denmark reoccupied it, bypassing and ignoring UN protocol. This should be about hospitality, not hostility,” Landry said.
In response, Denmark’s Ambassador to the United States, Jesper Møller Sørensen, said that “facts matter too” and emphasized that Greenland “has been part of the Kingdom of Denmark for centuries.” He also pointed out that last week, Greenland’s five parties in Parliament reiterated that they I don’t want to be part of the United States
“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement Friday evening.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said earlier this month that a US military move to take control of Greenland would amount to the end of the NATO military alliance. Denmark is a member of NATO, and NATO Article 5 states that if a NATO ally comes under armed attack, all members will consider this an attack on them as well and will do what they need to help the nation under attack.
“It would be disastrous,” Kaine said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” It wouldn’t just be the end of NATO, it would be the end of America alone. »
