January 14, 2026
Well – that didn’t go well.
That was the foreign minister from Denmark standing alongside the foreign minister from Greenland who said they could *not* reach an agreement with the United States about President Trump’s ambition to “take” Greenland. They met with Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio at the White House today. Despite the very big disconnect – the Danish minister tried to put a positive spin on the meeting.
Greenland of course is a territory of Denmark – which is NATO ally. And the white house and President Trump through his recent rhetoric has suggested that using the US military to accomplish Trump’s goal of making Greenland part of the United States is not off the table. Today the Danish foreign minister said if Trump did that – Denmark would consider it an attack and it would trigger article five of the NATO alliance which says an attack on one is an attack on all. Today trump was asked about how NATO plays into his plans for Greenland.
But the Danish minister said while they agree there is a concern about security in the artic — trump is wrong about the situation in Greenland.
As I have reported repeatedly – the United States and Denmark are the oldest of allies. The partnership goes back 235 years. And since 1951 the two countries have worked off of a treaty that says the US can have access to Greenland whenever it wants and can have as many military bases as it wants. But Trump continues to say having bases isn’t good enough. He says the United States needs to own Greenland. The Danes and Greenlanders say that’s not going to happen. The US and Denmark and Greenland will continue to talk to see if anything can be worked out.
Watch the Foreign Ministers’ full press conference here.
Watch Trump discuss Greenland here.
