As President Donald Trump was in Davos, Switzerland, last week attempting to bluster Europe into conceding the annexation of Greenland to the United States, Montana U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke expressed confidence there wouldn’t be a deal.
Montana’s western district representative, Zinke, a Republican, told Montana Free Press on Jan. 21 that Congress wouldn’t appropriate the money for Trump’s Greenland plans. Zinke approached the issue as a member of two key committees, House Appropriations and House Foreign Affairs.
Trump’s demands that Greenland be turned over upended relations with America’s European allies. The president said in an address at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the United States “probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force” before suggesting that instead he would impose economically crippling tariffs of 10%, climbing to 25% on European allies who opposed giving him Greenland. The United States had captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in a military strike just weeks earlier.
“I would say it’s distracting,” Zinke said of Trump’s demands for Greenland. “And I’ve given an oath to defend the Constitution. The president doesn’t have the authority to do military operations, and I think he’s backed off on that. His last statement was, ‘No.’”
“I’m opposed to any military action. And he doesn’t have the authority to buy it. The power of the purse resides in Congress.”
As Zinke spoke with Montana Free Press, Trump was meeting with Mark Rutte, the NATO secretary general, in Switzerland. The president would later say on Truth Social that “We have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland.”
“I’m opposed to any military action. And he doesn’t have the authority to buy it. The power of the purse resides in Congress”
Rep. Ryan Zinke
The was no deal. According to Reuters, Greenland and Denmark officials met with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Tuesday and are to meet in Paris on Wednesday to gird against Trump’s plans for a taking. Denmark has controlled the Arctic island for centuries.
The United States has military bases in Greenland. Trump has insisted only the United States can defend the island, which is attracting natural resource extraction as Arctic ice clears. But the protection will come only if the United States owns Greenland, Trump said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Montana is one of about a dozen states that have members of Congress on committees overseeing foreign affairs in both the House and Senate. U.S. Sen. Steve Daines is on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Daines, a Republican, is chair of the Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation. The subcommittee deals with “all matters concerning U.S. relations with the countries of Europe and the European Union, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Daines was unable to be interviewed for this story, his spokesperson Gabby Wiggins said. The senator was in India, as confirmed by posts of his trip on X. Of Daines’ involvement on the Greenland matter, Wiggins referred to a nondescript Jan. 15 readout from Daines and Senate Foreign Relations Committee ranking member Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire. The two met that day in the United States with the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland.
“We discussed the shared security interests of the United States, Greenland, and Denmark,” the statement by the two senators said. “Given the many threats around the globe, today’s meeting highlights the need for all NATO countries to work together to protect the alliance, especially in the Arctic.”
The next day, Shaheen led a bipartisan delegation to Denmark, where she said in an address at the University of Copenhagen that “millions of Americans are deeply concerned by the recent rhetoric about the United States taking over Greenland, either buying it or using military force. That rhetoric doesn’t just undermine our bilateral relationship; it undermines the NATO alliance at a time when our adversaries seek to benefit from division.”
Daines wasn’t one of the Republicans on the Denmark trip. He’s said little publicly about Trump’s demands for Greenland, or the resulting disruption to U.S.-NATO relations. He has become a regular midafternoon cable news commentator on Trump foreign policy. On Fox Business Network on Jan 12, Daines credited Trump for promoting civil unrest in Iran by bombing oil fields and blocking Venezuelan oil supplied to Cuba. In December, Daines was on the same network to praise Trump-ordered airstrikes on what the senator described as Venezuelan drug boats. Daines regularly ends his comments with a critique of former Democratic President Joe Biden and occasionally Barack Obama.
Other Republicans on the Daines subcommittee have spoken out. Sens. Rand Paul, of Kentucky, and John Curtis, of Utah, have spoken several times about opposing the president’s Greenland plans and warning that NATO relations are being damaged. Sen. John Barrasso, of Wyoming, like Daines, has said little, and so has Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska.
The other members of Montana’s delegation have taken positions. Republican U.S. Rep. Troy Downing, who represents Montana’s eastern House district, said in a recent telephone townhall that he recognizes Greenland’s strategic importance, according to Montana Public Radio reporting, but doesn’t support putting U.S.-NATO relations at risk.
U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy, also a Republican, has said little publicly about Greenland, but in February 2025, Sheehy participated in a Commerce Committee hearing about the untapped potential of Greenland’s natural resources and a possible acquisition of Greenland by the United States. Sheehy’s questions to policy experts centered on cost, which witnesses suggested would be at a minimum hundreds of billions of dollars not to acquire Greenland, but rather to secure rights to refuse other countries permission to develop there.
Commerce Chair Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, framed any acquisition as requiring a vote by the people of Greenland and an agreement by Denmark that United States ownership was beneficial.