Houses covered with snow are seen from the sea in Nuuk, Greenland, March 6, 2025.
Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
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Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
The White House supports President Trump's interest in Greenland, saying “all options” are on the table as the administration weighs potential acquisition of the Danish-controlled territory.
“All options are always on President Trump's desk as he explores what is in the best interests of the United States, but I will simply say that the President's first option has always been diplomacy,” White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday.
Her comments come amid growing alarm among administration critics about the aggressiveness of US foreign policy following a military operation in Venezuela on Saturday that led to the arrest of the country's President Nicolas Maduro.
Trump has has repeatedly expressed support Trump has said Greenland is vital to U.S. priorities in the Arctic and has expressed interest in the territory's large reserves of rare earth minerals.
“Greenland is covered in Russian and Chinese ships all over the place right now,” Trump told reporters over the weekend. “We need Greenland from a national security point of view, and Denmark can’t do that.”
The president's continued focus on Greenland poses a test for transatlantic relations.
In a joint statement released Tuesday, the leaders of seven European countries defended Greenland's sovereignty, saying it “belongs to its people.”
“Denmark and Greenland, and they alone, must resolve issues affecting Denmark and Greenland,” the leaders of Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom said in a statement.
Several European leaders, including Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, violently pushed back to Trump's comments, which said that an attack on Greenland by the US military would jeopardize the NATO military alliance.
Trump addressed NATO tensions in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday morning, saying the US “will always be there for NATO, even if they aren't there for us.”
Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday that previous presidential administrations had also entertained playing for Greenland, but when asked why the White House would not rule out using military force to take over the country, she declined.
“I know that past presidents and past leaders have often ruled things out. They were often very outspoken in matters of governance and, in effect, broadcast their foreign policy strategy to the rest of the world, not only to our allies, but, most egregiously, to our adversaries. This president doesn’t do that,” she said.
Speaking from Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Marco Rubio backed Leavitt, telling reporters that Trump's interest in Greenland has remained unchanged since his first administration. Rubio said the administration does not prefer military intervention but has not ruled it out.
“Every president has that opportunity,” Rubio said. “I'm not talking about Greenland. I'm only talking about the global scale.”
Among congressional Republican leaders, discussion of military intervention in Greenland has been met with skepticism. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, told reporters Wednesday that while the U.S. may see “geopolitical and strategic importance” in Greenland, “we are not at war with Greenland. We have no intention – we have no reason to go to war with Greenland.”
“There will be a lot of thoughtful discussions there, and we expect that to happen,” he added. “So all this talk about military action and all that, I don't think, I don't think it's possible, I don't even think it's possible. I don't think anyone is seriously considering this. And in Congress we certainly don’t.”
