A Danish politician floated a possible plan on Wednesday for President Donald Trump to take over Greenland.
Rasmus Jarlov, a conservative member of the Danish Parliament, said in a social media post to X that he regrets approving Denmark’s purchase of F-35 fighter jets from the United States. He suggested that the U.S. could threaten to deactivate Denmark’s weapons unless they hand over Greenland to the U.S.
Jarlov was responding to an article about theories that the Pentagon could remotely disable Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets with a “kill switch.” The report from Flight Global said the Pentagon denied there being a “kill switch” in the F-35 fighter jets that the U.S. has sold to its allies around the world.
“As one of the decision makers behind Denmark’s purchase of F35’s, I regret it. The USA can certainly disable the planes by simple stopping the supply of spare parts. They want to strengthen Russia and weaken Europa and are showing that they are willing to do tremendous damage to peaceful and loyal allies like Canada just because they insist on existing as a country,” he wrote on X.
“I can easily imagine a situation where the USA will demand Greenland from Denmark and will threaten to deactivate our weapons and let Russia attack us when we refuse (which we will even in that situation),” he added.
He went on to call on Denmark and its allies to avoid using American weapons.
“Therefore, buying American weapons is a security risk that we can not run. We will make enormous investments in air defence, fighter jets, artillery and other weapons in the coming years, and we must avoid American weapons if at all possible. I encourage our allies and friends to do the same,” he added.
Trump has repeatedly floated annexing Greenland for “national security” reasons and did not rule out using the U.S. military or “economic coercion” to take over Greenland earlier this year.
During a press conference with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Thursday, Trump was asked about his vision for annexing Greenland.
“Well, I think it’ll happen,” Trump responded.
He added “we’ve been dealing with Denmark. We’ve been dealing with Greenland. And we have to do it. We really need it for national security.”
Trump reminded his audience that the U.S. already has military bases in Greenland.
“Maybe you’ll see more and more soldiers go there,” he said. “I don’t know.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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