President Donald Trump says controlling Greenland is essential to prevent Russia and China from gaining more of a foothold in the Arctic.
But a number of concerned European officials and a growing, bipartisan contingent of lawmakers in Washington believe that Trump’s insistence that the U.S. take Greenland over the objection of Denmark, Greenlanders and other NATO allies is a boon for Russia and President Vladimir Putin — and strains an already fractious NATO alliance.
That contingent believes that Trump’s obsession with acquiring Greenland — and the shaky and varying reasons underpinning it — have diverted attention from Ukraine and even redirected resources to Greenland. That all complicates European efforts to maintain a strong, united front as the U.S. is pushing hard for a peace deal to end the war.
“What I find extremely worrying is seeing that in NATO and the EU some are starting to accept the narrative about Russian and Chinese threats to Greenland,” said a European government official, who, like others interviewed for this report, was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. “Respect for territorial integrity cannot be enforced by a land grab and we should say it out loud. But instead of dealing with the actual threat [of war in Ukraine], we’ll be sending troops to Greenland.”
Trump doesn’t need to seize Greenland to counter Russia. The U.S. has military bases on the island and has traditionally worked closely with Denmark on security.
Instead, some see dubious claims about imminent Chinese and Russian aggression as one of several pretexts for some future action, up to and including a military strike.
The president and administration officials have also suggested the United States needs Greenland for its Golden Dome missile defense shield, “economic security” and access to minerals — all areas where Denmark has signaled an openness to stronger collaboration.
“The President’s arguments about Greenland are self-evidently bullshit from top to bottom,” said Jeremy Shapiro, a former State Department official during the Barack Obama administration who’s now research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.
And European officials note that if Trump was so concerned about Russian aggression he has ample ways to address that — most notably in Ukraine, where allies have pleaded for the president to take a harder line against Putin since he returned to office.