The Greenland Problem: Trump’s Disdain for NATO is Shared by Putin
President Trump’s real-estate-monger approach to foreign affairs is best exemplified by his repeated public desire to purchase Greenland, the territory of U.S. ally Denmark. While his obsession with the world’s largest island has made headlines in recent weeks, Mr. Trump first posited the idea of purchasing Greenland in 2019. He was immediately shot down by Greenland’s then-premier, Kim Kielsen, who said, “Greenland is not for sale, and cannot be sold.” But Mr. Trump is not one to understand the meaning of no.
Now, almost seven years later, Mr. Trump is doubling down. The U.S. has not purchased new territory since acquiring the U.S. Virgin Islands from Denmark in 1917, making this renewed push for American expansionism feel unprecedented in the modern U.S. foreign policy context. The fact that Greenland is owned by Denmark, a key member of NATO, only adds to this confusing shift.
The shock surrounding Mr. Trump’s serious consideration of usurping land from a U.S. ally should be tempered by his long-standing hostility toward multilateral cooperation. Throughout his first term, Mr. Trump repeatedly expressed frustration with NATO countries’ financial contributions to the alliance. A core tenet of the Trump administration’s “America First” policy rests on the belief that the U.S. is being financially exploited by the rest of the world, a view reinforced by the failure of NATO members to meet the agreed-upon benchmark of spending 2% of their GDP on defense. Consistent with this worldview, Mr. Trump has, across both of his presidential terms, withdrawn the U.S. from multiple international organizations, agreements, and alliances. Taken together, these actions illustrate his belief that the U.S. is better off acting alone.
Mr. Trump’s belief that the U.S. has been consistently taken advantage of by its allies may explain why Denmark’s NATO standing has failed to deter him from threatening the country’s territorial sovereignty. It does not, however, explain why he believes that weakening NATO would strengthen U.S. defenses against Russia.
Mr. Trump’s interest in Greenland has been justified by the White House as rooted in national security concerns. Greenland is home to the northernmost U.S. military base, contains large deposits of critical minerals, and may gain strategic importance as melting Arctic ice opens new shipping lanes. Concerns over Russia’s potential military presence and China’s expanding commercial interests in the region have further elevated Greenland’s strategic value within the Trump administration. Mr. Trump has also suggested leveraging Greenland’s geographic position for the proposed “Golden Dome,” a missile defense system modeled after Israel’s Iron Dome and intended to detect and intercept threats.
However, President Putin has publicly denied having any interest in the ownership of Greenland. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s rhetoric and coercive tariffs targeting European countries who have sent military personnel to Greenland have deepened divisions among NATO members, weakening the military alliance that has long served as a central counterweight to Russian power. In attempting to strengthen the U.S. military position against Russia, Mr. Trump is instead undermining the very alliance that poses the greatest strategic threat to Moscow—an alliance formed in direct opposition to the Soviet Union and one that Ukraine sought to join prior to Russia’s invasion.