Europe’s strongly-worded statements appear to have done nothing to alter the Trump administration’s desire to ‘take’ Greenland. On the contrary, the president himself told The New York Times for a piece published on Thursday that “ownership [of the island] is very important.”
Donald Trump also said, in deliberately opaque language, that the only limit on his global power is “my own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
Paris responded by beating its chest on Friday, insisting it has the right to say “no” to the United States. Really, it has the right to say anything it wants. The question is whether anyone will listen or even care.
And German officials weren’t even brave enough to say whether Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul would discuss Greenland’s status with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio when talking to the press before the weekend.
Officials from Greenland and Denmark have been talking with Washington officials this week. They claimed to express “an openness to discuss any measure that would enhance the security of the United States, while respecting the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark.”
Washington has currently not ruled out military intervention. But Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday that she does not believe this approach will be pursued—that such an option would not “be in anyone’s interest, not even in the interest of the United States of America.”
I think that the Trump administration, with its somewhat assertive, very assertive methods, is focusing above all on the strategic importance of Greenland and the Arctic region in general for its interests and security.
In his NYT interview, Trump stressed that “ownership gives you things and elements that you can’t get from just signing a document,” adding: “That’s what I feel is psychologically needed for success.”
Michael Curzon is a news writer for europeanconservative.com based in England’s Midlands. He is also Editor of Bournbrook Magazine, which he founded in 2019, and previously wrote for London’s Express Online. His Twitter handle is @MichaelCurzon_.
