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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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President Donald Trump has said the United States is "seeking immediate negotiations" to acquire Greenland, deepening the yawning chasm opening up between Washington and its closest allies over the Arctic territory.
Trump called Greenland "part of North America" and "our territory" during a speech to global leaders at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos on Wednesday.
The Republican reiterated his claim that the U.S. is the only power capable of protecting the mostly ice-covered expanse and insisted this would not pose a threat to NATO.
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Why It Matters
Alliance officials have repeatedly said a U.S. military attack on Greenland, a semiautonomous part of Denmark, would spell the end of NATO. The prospect of the U.S. attacking territory belonging to a fellow alliance member has always been unfathomable, until now.
The White House had refused to rule out using military force to take Greenland, which would be a violation of international law.
What To Know
"I don't want to use force. I won't use force," Trump said. "All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland."
The White House has said it needs to acquire Greenland to shore up its own national security and fend off what it has painted as creeping Russian and Chinese advances. NATO officials have dismissed the administration's claims that Beijing and Moscow pose an immediate threat to Greenland.
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Also built into the administration's rationale, experts say, are the benefits of Greenland's natural resources and cementing the U.S.'s dominance in the Western Hemisphere.
Danish politicians had said the chances of the U.S. invading Greenland were remote, but not impossible. Denmark's defense minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, played down the possibility of Danish troops battling American forces, saying earlier this month that he still believed one NATO state would not attack another and that it remained "hypothetical."
"There is a probability of military fighting in Greenland," Rasmus Jarlov, a member of Copenhagen's parliament with the opposition conservative party and the chair of the defense committee, told Newsweek on Wednesday, ahead of Trump's speech in Switzerland. "We still think it's low, but we cannot rule it out completely when the Americans don't rule it out."
The very idea is anathema to much of NATO.
"For soldiers who trained and lived together for decades, fought alongside each other in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, it's horrific to hear politicians talking about the comrade as an enemy," a European military source told Newsweek earlier this month. "It's against the DNA of NATO soldiers to even think about that."
But the U.S. is the world's dominant military power, and the backbone of NATO. Europe and Canada have long relied on America's military might to prop up the alliance, and observers wince at the thought of Europe's prospects against an armed American attack.
"The Danish military is not a match for the American," Anders Vistisen, a member of the European Parliament and of the right-wing Danish People's Party, told Newsweek on Wednesday. He has vocally and publicly criticized Trump's desire for Greenland, notably telling the president to "f*** off" in a parliamentary session in early 2025.
"There is no one in the proximity that can make such a defense credible, but I think it's important that you have a signal that we are there with a military presence and we are going to object militarily if there is an attack occurring on Greenland," Vistisen added.
Greenlandic leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen had warned on Tuesday that Greenland must "be prepared" for any possibility, including an armed attack by the U.S.
What remains to be seen is whether Trump—famous for his mercurial nature—will pivot once again and threaten military action should talks stutter. A solution is hard to see, for the moment; European leaders and Canada have thrown their weight behind Greenland and Denmark, incurring the wrath of Trump and a raft of new tariffs set to take effect at the start of February.
It's not yet clear how Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom will respond.
What People Are Saying
U.S. President Donald Trump said at the World Economic Forum on Wednesday: "We probably won't get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won't do that."
Anders Vistisen, a member of the European Parliament and of the right-wing Danish People's Party, told Newsweek on Wednesday: "The level of betrayal, just talking about a military option towards such an ally who has probably been one of the most steadfast NATO allies in Europe for America for the past 30 years—that is really something that many Danes, including me, take affront to,"
Update 1/21/26, 11:51 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Anders Vistisen and additional information.
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