President Donald Trump dramatically revived his longstanding ambition to acquire Greenland on January 6, 2026, with the White House explicitly stating that deploying the U.S. military remains “always an option” available to the commander-in-chief, marking a sharp escalation in rhetoric toward NATO ally Denmark and raising alarms across Europe about potential fractures in the transatlantic alliance.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt underscored the administration's position in a formal statement, declaring that securing Greenland represents an urgent national security priority essential for countering escalating threats from Russia and China in the rapidly changing Arctic region, where receding ice caps are unlocking new maritime routes and exposing vast reserves of rare earth minerals vital for advanced technologies and military applications.

The intensified focus on Greenland emerges directly in the wake of the bold U.S. special forces operation on January 3, 2026, that successfully captured and extracted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from Caracas, an action that has emboldened Trump to assert broader American dominance in the Western Hemisphere and beyond, with the president hinting aboard Air Force One that a final decision on Greenland could arrive within weeks following stabilization in Venezuela.

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Leaders in Greenland and Denmark have categorically rejected any notion of transfer or sale, with Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen reiterating that the island's future rests solely with its 57,000 inhabitants, while both governments have sought but failed to secure prompt high-level talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio throughout 2025 to address what Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen described as resolvable “misunderstandings.”

In a unified display of solidarity, the heads of state from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and Denmark issued a joint declaration affirming unwavering commitment to the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and inviolable borders, emphasizing that Arctic security must be pursued collectively through NATO and explicitly stating that Greenland belongs exclusively to its people and Denmark alone.

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