Trump doubles down on threat to annex Greenland as JD Vance to hold White House showdown

LAST UPDATE | 2 hrs ago

US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump insisted today that the US needs to take control of Greenland with Nato’s support, just hours before crunch talks about the Danish territory with top Danish, Greenlandic, and US officials.

Just hours before the meeting with his Vice President JD Vance is due to start, Trump said US control of Greenland is “vital” for his planned Golden Dome air and missile defence system.

Trump has repeatedly stated that if the US does not take control of the island, Russia or China will.

“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES. Anything less than that is unacceptable,” he wrote on social media.

Earlier today, MEP Barry Andrews, who was this week appointed to oversee a report on EU-Greenland relations, said the US could be targeted with trade sanctions if Trump follows through on his threat to annex the territory. 

The Fianna Fáil member of the EU Parliament stressed, however, that he does not believe the US will take such a drastic and hostile action against an EU territory. 

“There are lots of possibilities on the diplomatic side, but inevitably, we will also have to explore tougher measures if the US decides to do things unilaterally,” Andrews told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme today. 

He said those measures could include, for example, a freeze on an EU-US trade agreement due to be tabled before the European Parliament’s trade committee in the next few days.

“There is a decision that will be taken at a meeting later this morning as to whether to postpone that vote to see what the outcome of the meeting in the White House is going to be,” Andrews said. 

High-ranking officials from Greenland and Denmark are due to meet with US counterparts in Washington later today, at a meeting that will be attended by JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 

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Vance is known for his hard edge, which was on display when he berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly during a White House meeting in February.

It has not been announced if the Greenland meeting will be open to the press.

Trump has made repeated threats to bring the world’s largest island under the control of the US “one way or the other” and this week a Republican congressman introduced a bill designed to pave the way for the president to do so, which Andrews described as “ridiculous”. 

The idea has been flatly rejected by the Danish and Greenlandic governments. 

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said that a US attack on Greenland would mean the end of Nato. 

Yesterday, the government of Greenland released a statement saying: 

“The United States has once again reiterated its desire to take over Greenland. This is something that the governing coalition in Greenland cannot accept under any circumstance.”

Today, Denmark’s defence minister said the country would increase its military presence on the island. 

“We will continue to strengthen our military presence in Greenland, but we will also have an even greater focus within NATO on more exercises and an increased NATO presence in the Arctic,” Troels Lund Poulsen said. 

Lund Poulsen added that Denmark “has an ongoing dialogue with its Allies about new and increased activities in 2026.”

Trump has sought to cast Greenland as a geostrategic weak point, even though it is home to a US military base and Denmark is a member of Nato, but the island is also rich in valuable minerals.

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