In a startling move that could strain relationships within the NATO alliance, the Trump administration has issued a bold statement suggesting the use of the U.S. military to lay claim to Greenland, a territory of Denmark. This announcement marks a significant escalation in the ongoing tensions between the United States and its NATO partner.

President Donald Trump, along with his senior advisers, is reportedly considering strategies such as purchasing Greenland outright or assuming control over its defense. These plans have been confirmed by a senior official within the administration, highlighting the seriousness with which the White House is approaching this issue.

The administration has further hinted at military intervention, stating that “utilizing the U.S. military is always an option.” This stark warning underscores the administration’s intent to keep the issue in the international spotlight, despite the disapproval it has received from leaders across the NATO alliance.

This aggressive stance by the U.S. has caused unease among its NATO allies, who have come to Denmark’s defense in light of Trump’s renewed threats to take control of Greenland. This comes in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s recent success in capturing Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, which may have emboldened further military ambitions.

President Trump has justified the need for U.S. control over Greenland, an island more than three times the size of Texas, citing strategic security concerns in the Arctic region. He argues that such a move is necessary to counter increasing geopolitical pressures from China and Russia, ensuring the security of NATO interests.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: ‘President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland ‌is a national security priority ‌of the United States, and it’s vital ​to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region.

‘The ‍president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important ‌foreign policy goal, ⁠and of course, utilizing the ‌US military is ‍always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal.’ 

Trump hinted on Sunday that a decision on Greenland may come ‘in about two months,’ once the situation in Venezuela has stabilized. 

US President Donald Trump speaks during the House Republican Party (GOP) member retreat at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, on January 6

Snow-covered buildings in Nuuk, Greenland, on March 7, 2025

Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister of Denmark, at the Elysee Summit of the Coalition of Volunteers in Paris on Tuesday 

Trump’s renewed claims over self-governing Greenland have stoked concerns in Europe that the NATO alliance could be about to fracture. 

Earlier, Britain’s Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron earlier issued a joint statement along with the leaders of Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain vowing to defend Greenland’s territorial integrity. 

Danish PM Mette Frederiksen has warned that efforts to take over the territory by force would mean the end of the NATO military alliance.

The British PM and other leaders called America an ‘essential partner’ and added that the US and Denmark had signed a defense agreement in 1951.

‘Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland,’ they said.

Europe’s backing came after White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller cast doubt on the legitimacy of Denmark’s territorial claim over Greenland in an interview with CNN on Monday night. 

He also said there was ‘no need’ to consider whether the US might carry out a military operation to take it over because ‘nobody is going to fight the US militarily over the future of Greenland’. 

Miller’s wife further inflamed tensions after Maduro’s capture by tweeting a map of Greenland covered by the American flag, captioning the post on X: ‘Soon.’

Trump on Saturday after Maduro’s capture touted the ‘Donroe Doctrine’, his version of the Monroe Doctrine, the 1800s-era policy that warned against European colonization in the Americas articulated by President James Monroe. 

Katie Miller, the wife of President Donald Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Steven Miller, posted a map of Greenland covered by the American flag to X just hours after the US struck Venezuela and captured its president, Nicolás Maduro

Donald Trump Jr. visited Greenland last January 

Greenland’s position above the Arctic Circle makes it a prime piece of real estate in the geopolitical map of the world. 

Increasing international tensions, global warming and the changing world economy have put Greenland at the heart of the debate over global trade and security.

The island, 80 percent of which lies above the Arctic Circle, is home to about 56,000 mostly Inuit people who until now have been largely ignored by the rest of the world.

Its location off the northeastern coast of Canada made it crucial to the defense of North America during World War II, when the US occupied Greenland. 

Following the Cold War, the Arctic was largely an area of international cooperation. 

But the Arctic ice is thinning, promising to create a northwest passage for international trade and reigniting competition with Russia, China and other countries over access to the region’s mineral resources.

In 2018, China declared itself a ‘near-Arctic state’ in an effort to gain more influence in the region.

China has also announced plans to build a ‘Polar Silk Road’ as part of its global Belt and Road Initiative, which has created economic links with countries around the world.

US Army Green Berets are seen during Arctic Edge 24 in Greenland. The territory is known for its untapped mineral wealth and NATO alliance

US Vice President JD Vance visited Greenland last March, specifically the US military’s Pituffik Space Base 

Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected China’s move, saying: ‘Do we want the Arctic Ocean to transform into a new South China Sea, fraught with militarization and competing territorial claims?’

Meanwhile, Russia has sought to assert its influence over wide areas of the Arctic in competition with the US, Canada, Denmark and Norway.

Moscow has also sought to boost its military presence in the polar region, home to its Northern Fleet and a site where the Soviet Union tested nuclear weapons. Russian military officials have said that the site is ready for resuming the tests, if necessary.

The Russian military in recent years has been restoring old Soviet infrastructure in the Arctic and building new facilities. Since 2014, the Russian military has opened several military bases in the Arctic and worked on reconstructing airfields.

European leaders’ concerns were heightened following Russia´s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last year that Russia is worried about NATO’s activities in the Arctic and will respond by strengthening the capability of its armed forces there. 

‘Russia has never threatened anyone in the Arctic, but we will closely follow the developments and mount an appropriate response by increasing our military capability and modernizing military infrastructure,’ Putin said in March at a policy forum in the Arctic port of Murmansk.

He added, however, that Moscow was holding the door open to broader international cooperation in the region.

The US Department of Defense operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, which was built after the U.S. and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland Treaty in 1951. 

It supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the US and NATO.

Greenland also guards part of what is known as the GIUK (Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom) Gap, where NATO monitors Russian naval movements in the North Atlantic.

Denmark is strengthening its military presence around Greenland and in the wider North Atlantic. 

The government last year announced a roughly $2.3 billion deal with parties including the governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, another self-governing Danish territory, to ‘improve capabilities for surveillance and maintaining sovereignty.’ 

The plan includes three new Arctic naval vessels, two additional long-range surveillance drones and satellite capacity.

Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command is headquartered in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, and tasked with the ‘surveillance, assertion of sovereignty and military defense of Greenland and the Faroe Islands,’ according to its website. It has smaller satellite stations across the island.

The Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, an elite Danish naval unit that conducts long-range reconnaissance and enforces Danish sovereignty in the Arctic wilderness, is also stationed in Greenland.

Greenland is also a rich source of the so-called rare earth minerals that are a key component of mobile phones, computers, batteries and other hi-tech gadgets that are expected to power the world´s economy in the coming decades.

That has attracted the interest of the US and other Western powers as they try to ease China’s dominance of the market for these critical minerals.

Development of Greenland´s mineral resources is challenging because of the island’s harsh climate, while strict environmental controls have proved an additional hurdle for potential investors.