Seven European leaders have issued an extraordinary joint rebuke of President Donald Trump’s designs on Greenland, declaring the Arctic territory “belongs to its people” just hours after the White House confirmed that using the U.S. military to seize the Danish island remains under active consideration.
The coordinated statement from France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Denmark represents the sharpest transatlantic confrontation since Trump’s return to office, coming days after the administration’s stunning capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro raised fears that Trump’s territorial ambitions might extend to NATO allies.
White House Confirms Military Option Under Discussion
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made explicit Tuesday what administration officials had previously only implied. “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,” Leavitt stated. “The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. Military is always an option at the Commander in Chief’s disposal.”
The statement arrived shortly after Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told CNN that it is the “formal position of the U.S. government” that Greenland should become American territory. When pressed on whether military force was off the table, Miller was dismissive: “Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland.”
Miller went further, questioning Denmark’s very right to the territory it has governed for 300 years. “The real question is, by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland? What is the basis of their territorial claim? What is their basis of having Greenland as a colony of Denmark?”
European Leaders Draw a Line
The European response came swiftly and with unusual force. Meeting in Paris alongside discussions about Ukraine, the seven leaders issued a statement that amounted to a warning shot across Trump’s bow: “Security in the Arctic must therefore be achieved collectively, in conjunction with NATO allies including the United States, by upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders. These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them.”
The statement acknowledged the U.S. as “an essential partner” through NATO and a 1951 defense agreement that already grants Washington military base rights on the island. But it concluded with unmistakable clarity: “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”
Nordic foreign ministers from Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark issued a separate statement reinforcing their solidarity with Copenhagen and offering to increase Arctic security investments in consultation with the United States.
Denmark Issues Stark Warning About NATO’s Future
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has been perhaps the most direct, warning that any American military action against Greenland would effectively destroy the alliance that has underpinned Western security since World War II. “If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2. “That is, including our NATO and thus the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War.”
Frederiksen urged the world to take Trump’s ambitions seriously. “I believe that the U.S. president should be taken seriously when he says that he wants Greenland. We will not accept a situation where we and Greenland are threatened in this way.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen was equally blunt, posting on social media: “That’s enough now. No more pressure. No more hints. No more fantasies about annexation. When the president of the United States talks about ‘we need Greenland’ and connects us with Venezuela and military intervention, it’s not just wrong. It’s disrespectful.”
The Venezuela Shadow
The timing of the Greenland escalation is no accident. Trump’s weekend military operation in Venezuela, which resulted in the capture of Maduro in a daring Special Forces raid, has fundamentally shifted calculations in European capitals. What once seemed like outlandish rhetoric now appears as genuine intent.
“It made them realize that this is not completely impossible,” Peter Viggo Jakobsen, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College, told reporters. Still, he called the prospect of an American invasion of NATO territory “absurd,” noting a “huge difference between launching a special forces operation against a country like Venezuela, which is effectively a pariah and is beset with domestic problems, and then doing the same thing in a NATO country that is in an alliance with the U.S.”
The concern deepened when Katie Miller, Stephen Miller’s wife and a former Trump administration official, posted an image on social media showing Greenland covered with an American flag, captioned simply: “SOON.”
Bipartisan Pushback Emerges in Congress
Even within Trump’s own party, the Greenland rhetoric has drawn criticism. Representatives Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and Blake Moore (R-UT), co-chairs of the Congressional Friends of Denmark Caucus, issued a joint statement calling the threats “needlessly dangerous.” Any U.S. attack on Greenland, they warned, “would tragically be an attack on NATO.”
The lawmakers noted what the administration seems determined to ignore: “We already have access to everything we could need from Greenland.” Denmark has previously given the United States permission to deploy additional military forces to the island and build further missile defense infrastructure there.
What Comes Next
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, Trump’s special envoy to Greenland, offered a slightly different framing Tuesday, suggesting the administration seeks an “independent Greenland with economic ties and trade opportunities for the United States.” But when asked whether all options remained on the table, Landry dodged: “The president is one of those people that says everything is on the table.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Secretary of State Marco Rubio privately told lawmakers that the threats do not signal an imminent invasion and that the goal is to pressure Denmark into selling the island, though no indication exists that Copenhagen or Nuuk would entertain such discussions.
For now, European leaders appear to be attempting a delicate balancing act: defending their ally while avoiding a complete rupture with a president on whom they still depend for military protection against Russia. But as the Chatham House think tank noted in an analysis, “European countries ought not to be overconfident in their ability to influence U.S. decision making on these issues.”
Trump, asked when he might move on Greenland, offered a timeline that has European capitals on edge: “Let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days.”