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The Trump administration is weighing options to acquire Greenland, including the use of the military, days after completing a covert operation to capture Venezuela’s now-deposed President Nicolás Maduro.

“The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the Commander-in-Chief’s disposal,” the White House said Tuesday.

On Monday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said on CNN, “The president has made clear for months now that the United States should be the nation that has Greenland as part of our overall security apparatus.”

Greenland, a mineral-rich Arctic island, is a self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Trump told reporters last Sunday Greenland is “so strategic right now,” adding the territory “is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”

Also over the weekend, the U.S. captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas. They both subsequently pleaded not guilty to drug and weapons charges in New York.

On Tuesday, six major European nations said in a joint statement: “Only Denmark and Greenland can decide on matters concerning their relations.”

Watch: Chuck Schumer says he was ‘very disappointed’ by Trump administration’s answer when asked about targeting more countries

Rachel Dobkin6 January 2026 23:00

Europe’s showdown with Trump over threat to Greenland

Europe set up a showdown with Donald Trump after its leaders joined Canada and Denmark to rally behind Greenland, insisting it “belongs to its people” as the US president doubled down on threats to imminently annex the strategic, mineral-rich island.

Despite backlash from Europe the White House insisted on Tuesday it is “discussing options for acquiring Greenland.”

“President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region,” the Trump administration said in a statement.

“The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilising the U.S. military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal,” the statement added.

Earlier in the day, leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain had joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in defending Greenland’s sovereignty.

“Greenland belongs to its people,” the statement said. “It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”

Bel Trew6 January 2026 22:40

Watch: Pam Bondi calls Nicolás Maduro a ‘monster’

Rachel Dobkin6 January 2026 22:25

INSIDE STORY: What the Greenland locals really think of Trump – and why he could be in for a shock

When President Trump first said he wanted to buy Greenland, I asked many local people what they thought. I didn’t hear a single person say it would be a good idea then, and I am still waiting. As for the most recent soundbite from the president about looking down the coast and seeing “Russian and Chinese ships all over the place”, the typical response here is: “Trump is talking nonsense again.”

But then Katie Miller, the wife of Stephen Miller, a former senior adviser to Trump, posted a picture of Greenland draped in the American flag, accompanied by the ominous single word “SOON”, and suddenly everything feels a bit more serious. Not for nothing are Greenlandic people now flooding social media with pictures of Greenland in the colours of their flag.

What the Greenland locals really think of Trump – and why he’s in for a shock

When Dennis Lehtonen, 30, left city life behind for one of the remotest places on Earth, he could not have imagined the extremes that awaited him. Three years later, after enduring –37C temperatures, using bags as toilets and sledding 20km to the nearest local shop, he explains why he has stayed – and what Greenland’s response to the US president really looks like

Dennis Lehtonen6 January 2026 22:19

ANALYSIS: The White House wants to ‘own’ the Western hemisphere. Voters aren’t really buying it

Over the four days that have elapsed since the daring, unprecedented — and according to critics, illegal — special forces action that brought Maduro from a Caracas safe house to a New York courtroom on drug and weapons charges, the president and his allies in the White House have proceeded to threaten or warn of military action against multiple American allies and neighbors, including Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, and Denmark, the NATO member kingdom which has controlled Greenland in whole or in part since the 16th century.

Trump himself told reporters on Sunday that the result of his decision to have U.S. forces seize Maduro was to show that “American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again,” while claiming that his administration’s aim was to make sure the hemisphere was filled with “countries around us that are viable and successful and where the oil is allowed to freely come out.”

For Trump, it was a return to the bellicose rhetoric he’d spouted since the days immediately following his 2024 election victory, when he began claiming the U.S. needs to annex Greenland for “national security” reasons despite the existence of a decades-old treaty that essentially gives America carte blanche to base troops there as part of the country’s commitment to NATO.

Andrew Feinberg6 January 2026 22:16

Trump is considering using military to acquire Greenland

The Trump administration is weighing options to acquire Greenland, including the use of the military.

“The president and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the US military is always an option at the Commander-in-Chief’s disposal,” the White House said Tuesday.

Rachel Dobkin6 January 2026 22:04