The U.S. president said he will ‘deal’ with Russia as his Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accuses European nations of projecting ‘weakness.’
U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he would deal with “the Russia threat” over Greenland, accusing Denmark of failing to do enough to secure the Arctic island.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “NATO has been telling Denmark, for 20 years, that ‘you have to get Russian threat away from Greenland.’ Unfortunately, Denmark has been unable to do anything about it.”
“Now it is time, and it will be done!!!” the U.S. president said, as the political dispute over the strategically located, mineral-rich island continued.
Trump has repeatedly stated his ambitions for the United States to take control of Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, for national security reasons.
The dispute escalated on Saturday when Trump said he would slap a wave of increasing tariffs on Denmark and other European allies who are opposed to his ambitions to acquire Greenland.
Trump has said repeatedly that China and Russia pose a threat to the United States in the Arctic region, with Greenland a key location because it sits along an intercontinental ballistic missile path from Moscow and, less directly along such a path, from China.
Greenland has been the frontier of American early warning systems over a nuclear attack since the days of the Cold War, with the first ballistic missile early warning system set up in 1960.
Russian Response
The Kremlin said Monday it was difficult to disagree with experts who said it would be historic if Trump succeeds in his ambition to take control of Greenland, Russian state media TASS reported.
“Here, perhaps, it is possible to abstract from whether this is good or bad, whether it will comply with the parameters of international law or not,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“There are international experts who believe that by resolving the issue of Greenland’s incorporation, Trump will certainly go down in history.”
The governments of both Denmark and Greenland have repeatedly said the island is not for sale and that its people do not want to be part of the United States.
