After President Donald Trump’s decision to use military force to bend Venezuela to his will, some senators are now wondering: Is Greenland next?
Trump has coveted the autonomous Danish territory since his first term, evolving from musing about buying the island to more recent threats of a military invasion.
Lawmakers had largely brushed off the Greenland talk as unserious bluster. But on the heels of Trump’s bombing of Caracas and capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro over the weekend — and Trump subsequently restating his interest in Greenland — senators, particularly Democrats, said Tuesday they are concerned Trump will indeed attempt to seize the island.
“I was somebody who didn’t want to spend any time on these Greenland threats because I thought it was intended to distract us from real things,” Sen. Christopher S. Murphy, D-Conn., told reporters. “You have to take his Greenland threats seriously now.”
Underscoring the concerns, at least two Democrats have signaled they will introduce war powers resolutions in the coming days that would bar Trump from taking military action against Greenland.
Since his military operation in Venezuela, Trump has leveled a bevy of threats for future military action around the world, including in Greenland.
“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. “And Denmark is not going to be able to do it, I can tell you.”
The Arctic territory is considered a strategic asset given its prime location to monitor Russian submarine activity in the Atlantic, as well as to position radars to detect incoming missile threats. And as climate change melts the ice covering much of Greenland, the mineral resources underneath could help reduce the West’s dependence on Chinese exports.
But the United States already has a military base in Greenland that is home a couple hundred troops, as well as a willing partner in NATO ally Denmark to counter Russian and Chinese aggression.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a hawkish Republican who is a close ally of Trump’s, said Tuesday the president is right to focus on Greenland, though he suggested Trump’s goal isn’t military invasion.
“Everybody wants us to have a bigger presence in Greenland to combat the Russian-Chinese Arctic influence,” Graham said. “I totally agree with that. I think Trump’s asking, what’s the legal relationship we’re going to have? If you want us to invest heavily in Greenland, more money, more technology, more military basing, what kind of relationship are we going to have?”
In addition to Trump’s threat, his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, insisted this week that the United States has the right to seize Greenland. Hours after the Venezuela operation, Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, posted a picture to social media of Greenland covered in the U.S. flag with the caption, “SOON.”
“The real question is by what right does Denmark assert control over Greenland,” Stephen Miller said in a Monday interview on CNN. “The United States is the power of NATO. For the United States to secure the Arctic region, to protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, obviously Greenland should be part of the United States.”
Denmark’s claim to Greenland rests with the 1814 Treaty of Kiel, which separated Norway from Denmark and gave the latter country control of the island.
Options open
The White House on Tuesday contended U.S. officials were studying options to acquire Greenland, including via the use of military force.
“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,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“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,” she added.
But Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers during a closed briefing Monday that a military invasion is not imminent and the goal is to buy Greenland, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
Leaders of other NATO countries are taking the Trump administration’s threats seriously enough that several issued a rare joint statement warning against U.S. intervention in Greenland.
“The Kingdom of Denmark – including Greenland – is part of NATO. 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,” French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in the statement.
“Greenland belongs to its people,” the European leaders added. “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”
Legislative response
In the face of Trump’s threats, Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said Monday he was introducing an amendment to the fiscal 2026 Defense appropriations bill to block funding for military action against Greenland.
On Tuesday, Gallego also said on social media that he will introduce a “resolution to block Trump from invading Greenland,” suggesting he plans to introduce a war powers resolution.
“WAKE UP. Trump is telling us exactly what he wants to do,” Gallego posted on X. “We must stop him before he invades another country on a whim.”
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., also said Tuesday that he anticipates introducing “many” war power resolutions in the coming days to address the various places Trump has threatened, including Greenland, though he declined to discuss details because he said he wanted to focus on Venezuela this week.
Both Gallego and Kaine have sponsored war powers resolutions to block military action against Venezuela, with Kaine’s latest Venezuela resolution expected to get a vote as soon as Thursday.
“People voted against me on my Venezuela resolution, and many told me in October that they thought the president was bluffing,” Kaine said Tuesday. “I said, ‘He ain’t bluffing,’ and we know he wasn’t bluffing. So he has repeatedly raised Greenland, Cuba, Mexico, Colombia. He’s waged military action within Nigeria. So I think members of the Senate should go on the record about all of it.”
Some Republicans on Tuesday continued to brush off the prospect of military action to seize Greenland.
“The more opportunity [Trump] has to make people look in lots of different directions, the more he enjoys it,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said.
“I haven’t heard of anybody taking or threatening military action specifically against Greenland,” Rounds added with a chuckle. “And I don’t take it seriously.”
Some other Republicans raised concern, though. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., the co-chair of the Senate NATO Observer Group who is not running for re-election, co-signed a statement with Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., on Tuesday warning that “any suggestion that our nation would subject a fellow NATO ally to coercion or external pressure undermines the very principles of self-determination that our Alliance exists to defend.”
But Democrats warned of devastating consequences if Trump acts on his military ambitions in Greenland.
“That’ll destroy NATO,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee. “Second, it’ll probably empower [Russian President Vladimir] Putin even more. So it’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
But, Reed added, “you can’t dismiss anything” Trump says now.
John T. Bennett contributed to this report.
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