Don’t Panic Over Trump’s Refusal to Rule Out Greenland Invasion, Denmark Says – POLITICO

Trump declared on Tuesday that he would not rule out the use of economic or military coercion to gain control of Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory, and the Panama Canal. “I won’t commit to that. No. You may have to do something,” he said.

“We need Greenland for national security purposes,” he added. “People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security.”

Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., the country in Greenland on Tuesday on what he called a private visit. His entourage included the elder Trump’s chief of staff, Sergio Gore, and bombastic conservative activist Charlie Kirk; the US president-elect described the group as his “representatives”.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who rejected Trump’s first proposal to buy Greenland in 2019 and called it “absurd”, had already repeated on Tuesday – before Trump’s refusal to rule out acquiring Greenland by force – that “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders.”

“There is great support among the population of Greenland that Greenland is not for sale and will not be for sale in the future,” she added.

Rasmussen defended Frederiksen’s remarks, which some in Denmark criticized as weak, and insisted that she did not “waver” in her support for Greenland.