Greenland Leaders Reject U.S. Control: 'We Don't Want to Be Americans'

By Ward Clark | 3:32 PM on January 10, 2026

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With all eyes on Iran, and on the mess that the left is making of many of our cities, it's easy to forget that the rest of the world is out there - but out there it is, and that rest of the world includes Greenland. President Trump would like Greenland to become American. But on Saturday, we learned that Greenland's leadership harbors no such desires.

Greenland's leadership is pushing back on President Donald Trump as he and his administration call for the U.S. to take control of the island. Several Trump administration officials have backed the president's calls for a takeover of Greenland, with many citing national security reasons.
"We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders," Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement Friday night, according to The Associated Press. Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory and a longtime U.S. ally, has repeatedly rejected Trump's statements about U.S. acquiring the island.
Greenland's party leaders reiterated that the island's "future must be decided by the Greenlandic people."

It's tempting at this juncture to say, "Fine, let's put it to a vote. Let all the people of Greenland vote on whether they want to remain a Danish possession or become Americans."

President Trump, on the other hand, isn't backing down on his idea of obtaining Greenland, which we might note goes back at least as far as President Truman.

Trump was asked about the push to acquire Greenland on Friday during a roundtable with oil executives. The president, who has maintained that Greenland is vital to U.S. security, said it was important for the country to make the move so it could beat its adversaries to the punch.
"We are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not," Trump said Friday. "Because if we don't do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we're not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor."

It's not at all clear what President Trump means by "like it or not."

‘Everybody Relax’: Speaker Johnson Schools Press on the Possibility of U.S. Going to 'War' on Greenland

Of course, it's unlikely in the extreme that the United States will attempt to take Greenland by force. But that doesn't mean that the U.S. can't make deals that would be advantageous to Americans and Greenlanders both. Mining and oil extraction deals, military basing deals, establishing a cordon around Greenland to protect American interests on the island, and make Russian and Chinese ships operating in the area a little more cautious.

Here's the thing: In this ever-changing geopolitical world, Greenland can't stand on its own forever. Some kind of more robust alliance is in order. Greenland commands the Atlantic's Arctic approaches. Look at a map of the globe, not with the usual perspective, but taken looking straight down at the North Pole, and you'll see that Russia already has a commanding presence in the Arctic, with over half the shoreline on the Arctic Ocean. The Arctic is only becoming more strategically important, and Greenland is the gateway from the Atlantic.

Making a defense deal in return for mining and extraction rights seems eminently doable.

Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and his administration’s bold leadership, we are respected on the world stage, and our enemies are being put on notice.

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