If you’d said to me three months ago that the United States could invade and occupy Greenland, I’d have likely checked your head for a tinfoil hat. But after Vice President JD Vance’s three-hour trip to a U.S. military base in Greenland, I’m starting to get concerned that Operation Arctic Freedom could be in the offing.
Vance’s brief sojourn to the autonomous territory, which is still part of the Kingdom of Denmark, was perhaps the most insane and inappropriate diplomatic foray ever conducted by an American official.
In short, the message was: ‘Nice island you got here … it’d be a shame if something happened to it.’
Vance, accompanied by the national security adviser, Michael Waltz, and the energy secretary, Chris Wright, didn’t meet with Greenland’s prime minister or any other government officials. In fact, it’s not clear he encountered a single resident of the island. A planned meet-and-greet with Usha Vance, the vice president’s wife, was scrapped because U.S. officials couldn’t find any locals willing to meet publicly with the second lady — as well as because of fears that any public event would be marred by protests.
Vance instead stayed sequestered at a U.S. Army base where he openly criticized Denmark — which provides military protection for Greenland (at least for now) — and said the island was essential to U.S. national security. The vice president implicitly threatened the use of American military force to acquire it.
“The president has said clearly he doesn’t think that military force is going to be necessary,” said Vance, “but he absolutely believes that Greenland is an important part of the security not just of the U.S. but of the world.”
In short, the message was: “Nice island you got here … it’d be a shame if something happened to it.”
According to Vance, the United States’ increasing its position in Greenland “has to happen” because “our friends in Denmark have not done their job in keeping this area safe” from Russian and Chinese encroachment. Vance’s warnings of Russian adventurism hit a bit hollow when you consider that the Trump administration is actively working to end Moscow’s diplomatic isolation since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
But the vice president’s menacing rhetoric follows a familiar and disturbing pattern. In January, before taking office, Trump refused to rule out economic or military coercion to take over the island. “It might be that you’ll have to do something,” he said at the time in reference to Greenland and the Panama Canal. In his address to a joint session of Congress last month, he said, “One way or another, we’re gonna get it.”
On the day of Vance’s trip, Trump declared in the Oval Office, “We need Greenland. … We have to have Greenland. It’s not a question of ‘Do you think we can do without it?’ We can’t.”
And during a little-noted news conference in March with Mark Rutte, the NATO secretary general, Trump dismissed Denmark’s territorial claims to Greenland and said ominously, “We have a couple of bases on Greenland already, and we have quite a few soldiers that — maybe you’ll see more and more soldiers go there. I don’t know.” (italics added)
Trump then pointed to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and asked, “What do you think about that, Pete? Don’t answer that, Pete. Don’t answer that question.”
How many times can Trump say he’s considering using the U.S. military to seize Greenland before we start taking him seriously?
The irony of Trump’s statement is that he can send additional U.S. troops right now to improve Greenland’s defenses. According to a 1951 defense agreement between the United States and Denmark, the United States is legally permitted to create new “defense areas … necessary for the development of the defense of Greenland and the rest of the North Atlantic Treaty area, and which the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark is unable to establish and operate singlehanded.”
How many times can Trump say he’s considering using the U.S. military to seize Greenland before we start taking him seriously?
In other words, as Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen recently pointed out, if the Trump administration wants to ramp up the U.S. military presence in Greenland without taking control of the island, it’s well within its rights to do so. Rasmussen also noted that the Danish government announced a multibillion-dollar security package for Greenland in January, which included the acquisition of icebreakers and long-range drones, as well as additional personnel stationed on the Arctic island. None of this was mentioned in Vance’s remarks. There’s also the matter of NATO, of which Denmark is a founding member. Any attack on Greenland would be considered an attack on all NATO countries — and the United States would be treaty-bound to defend it. What better security guarantee could there be for Greenland than the full weight of America’s military might if the island is attacked? If Trump is genuinely concerned about Greenland and the potential for Russian and Chinese encroachment, there are plenty of steps that the United States can take to improve the security situation there. But Trump isn’t doing that. Rather than working with the Danish government and securing a greater military partnership, he is openly antagonizing it by declaring his desire to make Greenland part of the United States. The reason seems rather simple yet also terrifying: Trump wants Greenland to become part of the United States. Period. He doesn’t care about Greenland’s security. He wants it for America. Indeed, Trump has been talking about making Greenland the 51st state since his first term as president. Back in 2019, he got in a public spat — and canceled a planned trip to Denmark — because then-Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredriksen refused to discuss selling the island to the United States. Why does Trump want Greenland so badly? I suspect it’s the same reason he wants to annex Canada and reclaim the Panama Canal. It’s consistent with his propensity for slapping his name (always in giant letters) on garish, self-aggrandizing, yet oddly boring architectural monstrosities around the globe. It’s all about Trump’s ego. Most presidents seek policy legacies. For Barack Obama, it was health care; for Ronald Reagan, a smaller federal government; for Richard Nixon, détente with the communist world. Trump couldn’t care less about policy because his only genuine interest is himself. He wants to be able to point to America’s expanded territorial footprint and say, “I made Greenland the 51st state.” Indeed, at his news conference Friday, Vance unintentionally admitted that Trump’s ego is driving this process. Asked whether the United States “is very serious in its desire to acquire Greenland,” he said, “Well, the president said we have to have Greenland, and I think that we do have to be more serious about the security of Greenland. We can’t just ignore this place. We can’t just ignore the president’s desires.” Alas, Vance and those around Trump do have agency to ignore his desire to control Greenland. Instead, they indulge him — as they’ve done on his calls for annexing Canada and his disastrous trade war. How far is Trump willing to go? We don’t know, but if anyone thinks that a U.S. military attack on Greenland is outside the realm of possibility, they simply aren’t paying attention.
Michael A. Cohen is a political writer and a fellow with the Eurasia Group Foundation. 
