Senate Republicans are vowing to block any effort by President Trump to seize Greenland by military force, as Trump officials on Wednesday refused to back off their demands to control the island during a meeting with top diplomats at the White House.
Republican senators are flummoxed by Trump’s insistence that he’s willing to use military force to seize control of Greenland from Denmark, something they fear will destroy the NATO alliance and give Russia a bigger advantage in its war against Ukraine.
Two Republican senators — Sens. Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) — plan to travel to Copenhagen on Friday to assure the Danish prime minister that there would be strong Republican opposition to any effort by Trump to use military force to seize Greenland.
“I’m going to remind them that we have coequal branches of government and I believe that there [is a] sufficient number of members, whether they speak up or not, that are concerned with this,” Tillis said of Trump’s threats.
“The actual execution of anything that would involve a taking of a sovereign territory that is part of a sovereign nation, I think would be met with pretty substantial opposition in Congress,” he said.
“Right now, people are trying to be deferential, but this is just an example of, whoever keeps on telling the president that this idea is achievable should not be in Washington, D.C.,” Tillis said.
A Republican senator who requested anonymity said Trump’s talk of taking over Greenland has generated more opposition from Republicans in Congress because of the dire implications such an aggressive move would have for the future of NATO.
“You see, more than in other incidents, pushback by Republican senators on this topic,” the lawmaker said.
“I have no understanding how this is an idea to begin with,” the senator added with exasperation, warning that taking Greenland will undermine NATO and put Ukraine at greater risk.
“We absolutely need NATO support Ukraine. Diminishing the capabilities of NATO to do that is a death knell to people in Ukraine,” the senator said.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Wednesday found that only 17 percent of Americans would support a U.S. takeover of Greenland. Only 4 percent of respondents said taking Greenland by force would be a good idea.
And 66 percent of respondents said they worried efforts to acquire Greenland would damage NATO and U.S. relations with European allies.
Tillis and Murkowski will travel to Denmark at the end of the week along with Democratic Sens. Chris Coons (Del.); Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; and Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.).
Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Reps. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) and Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) will also be part of the delegation, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The lawmakers will meet with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who joined a meeting with Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Wednesday, after which the two sides “agreed to disagree.”
Murkowski has teamed up with Shaheen to co-sponsor a bill that would prohibit the use of Defense Department funds to blockade, occupy, annex or conduct military operations against Greenland or any sovereign territory of a NATO member state. Their bill would also block the State Department from using funds to do the same.
Murkowski and Shaheen are both senior members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Defense and State departments’ budgets.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the chair of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, which controls the Pentagon budget, on Wednesday delivered a searing rebuke to Trump’s threat to seize control of Greenland by military force.
Speaking on the Senate floor, McConnell warned it would “incinerate” long-standing NATO alliances and cripple efforts to contain Russian aggression toward Europe.
He argued Denmark and Greenland are ready to accept any request Trump might make to bolster the United States’s military presence in Greenland to deter Russian and Chinese expansion into the Arctic.
“Unless and until the president can demonstrate otherwise, then the proposition at hand today is very straightforward: incinerating the hard-won trust of loyal allies in exchange for no meaningful change in U.S. access to the Arctic,” McConnell declared.
He said Trump’s “ill-advised threats about Greenland” would “shatter the trust of our allies” if acted on.
“Following through on this provocation would be more disastrous for the president’s legacy than withdrawing from Afghanistan was for his predecessor,” he said, referring to the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces under the Biden administration.
McConnell spoke out on the floor after Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday he would use military force if Denmark doesn’t agree to sell the mineral-rich territory to the United States.
“I would like to make a deal the easy way, but if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way,” Trump said.
The president doubled down on his statement Wednesday by posting on Truth Social that anything less than U.S. control of Greenland would be “unacceptable.”
“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES. Anything less than that is unacceptable,” he posted.
Sen. James Lankford (Okla.), a member of Senate GOP leadership, pushed back on Trump’s threat to use military force.
“Greenland, the Danes are allies,” he said. “We cannot do military action in Greenland. Should not, cannot.”
Buying Greenland could cost the U.S. Treasury $700 billion, according to sources familiar with the estimate cited by NBC News.
But Trump is already facing stiff opposition from Republican lawmakers who would be crucial to signing off on such a large purchase.
“I do not support the president’s plan to annex Greenland by either force or by buying it over the opposition of people in Greenland and Denmark, a NATO ally,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) told The Hill on Wednesday.
“I do believe that Greenland would be amenable to the U.S. expanding its base that already exists there or its military presence to send a message to China, Russia. But that can be done through diplomatic negotiations, not through threats and intimidation,” she said.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) warned Wednesday that Denmark has made it crystal clear it does not intend to cede Greenland to the United States.
“I made a statement last week that this is an issue that should be dropped. And then I had a meeting with the Danish ambassador to the United States and several officials from the Greenland government. It’s pretty clear that there’s no room for negotiation on the topic of ownership,” he said.
“I do believe there are real opportunities for partnership in the area of critical minerals and bases,” he said.
Rasmussen, the Danish foreign minister, laid out a similar stance alongside Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt following their meeting with Vance and Rubio, announcing the two sides had formed a working group to “explore if we can find a common way forward.”
“The group, in our view, should focus on how to address the American security concerns, while at the same time, respecting the red lines of the kingdom of Denmark,” he said.
“That does not mean we want to be owned by the United States,” Motzfeldt added. “But as allies, how we can strengthen our cooperation is our interest.”