Trump’s Threats Against Greenland: When “National Security” Becomes Imperial Expansion

January 21, 2026

The Arctic, once a region defined by multilateral cooperation and scientific collaboration, is rapidly becoming a dangerous flashpoint. President Trump’s escalating threats to seize Greenland by military force or economic coercion have created an existential crisis for international law and order.

This week, Germany, France, the UK, and a few other European NATO states sent a small number of troops, barely 30 in all, to Greenland as a show of support for Denmark and “to strengthen the alliance’s footprint in the Arctic.” The handful of European soldiers won’t stop the American military if Trump acts on his threats. But their presence points to a disturbing new reality: America has become the threat its own allies need protection from. How did we get to this point?

Why Trump Wants Greenland

When Trump first brought up the idea of purchasing Greenland in 2019, people laughed it off. But now, nobody’s laughing. The whole thing has gone from a bizarre real estate pitch to something much more aggressive. Trump now says he’ll take Greenland “whether they like it or not” and even warned Denmark, “If we don’t do it the easy way we’re going to do it the hard way.”

At first, Trump tried to justify his interest by claiming that Russian and Chinese ships were swarming Greenland’s coast. When experts and diplomats debunked this claim, noting that those countries’ ships are thousands of miles away in the Barents and Bering seas, the narrative shifted to missile defense. Now Trump insists Greenland is crucial for the Golden Dome, his proposed multilayer missile defense system.

Full piece in The Nation