White House says Trump ‘discussing a range of options’ to acquire Greenland

The White House on Tuesday said President Donald Trump is weighing multiple options to acquire Greenland, including the possible use of the US military, underscoring the administration’s increasingly assertive posture in the Arctic.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN that Trump considers Greenland’s acquisition a matter of national security.
“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,” she said.
“The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilising the US military is always an option at the Commander in Chief’s disposal.”

The remarks came as Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed lawmakers on the administration’s renewed interest in Greenland, while privately downplaying the likelihood of immediate military action, according to sources cited by CNN.

Though the issue has not been prominently discussed in public in recent months, internal deliberations have continued. At Rubio’s request, the State Department recently assessed Greenland’s untapped natural resources, including rare earth minerals. The review found no reliable estimates of their scale and noted that extraction would be extremely costly due to harsh climate conditions and limited infrastructure.

Trump has revived his expansionist rhetoric following the recent US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, again stressing Greenland’s strategic importance.
“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday.

Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller echoed that view, saying no country would fight the US militarily over Greenland’s future, while questioning Denmark’s claim to the territory despite its NATO membership.

The renewed US focus triggered swift reactions in Europe. Leaders from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Britain and Denmark issued a joint statement backing Copenhagen, stressing that Greenland belongs to its people and that Arctic security must be ensured collectively within NATO.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned that Trump’s ambitions should be taken seriously, cautioning that any US military action against Greenland could effectively undermine NATO itself. Greenland’s government also confirmed it has sought a meeting with Rubio.

Greenland — a self-governing Danish territory spanning about 836,000 square miles between the US, Europe and Russia — is valued for its strategic location and potential deposits of oil, gas and rare earth minerals. Trump first proposed purchasing the island during his first term, a suggestion Denmark firmly rejected.

After winning the 2024 election, Trump revived the idea, again refusing to rule out military force. “I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it,” he said during a joint session of Congress last year.

The push has drawn bipartisan criticism in Washington. Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego announced plans to introduce a resolution blocking any US invasion of Greenland, while Republican Representative Don Bacon, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, urged Republicans to oppose any military move.

“This is appalling. Greenland is a NATO ally,” Bacon told CNN, adding that Denmark has been a reliable partner and that coercion would have “no upside.”

In a joint statement, Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Thom Tillis, co-chairs of the bipartisan Senate NATO Observer Group, reaffirmed US support for Denmark, warning that coercion of a NATO ally would undermine the alliance’s core principles of sovereignty and self-determination.

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