U.S. President Donald Trump takes questions from reporters, as he attends a meeting with oil industry executives, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., Jan. 9, 2026. <\/p>\n
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump<\/a> said Friday his administration will take action on Greenland<\/a> “whether they like it or not,” further escalating his rhetoric as he pushes to acquire the Danish territory<\/a> for the U.S.<\/p>\n “I would like to make a deal, you know, the easy way. But if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way,” Trump told reporters at the White House.<\/p>\n The comments came during a meeting with oil executives to discuss the prospect of doing business in Venezuela<\/a>. Less than a week earlier, the U.S. military invaded the oil-rich South American nation and captured its leader, Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n Trump has long sought to take over Greenland, primarily citing the Arctic island’s importance for U.S. national security. <\/p>\n Denmark and its European allies in NATO \u2013 the military alliance co-founded by the U.S. \u2013 have pushed back, reiterating that\u00a0Greenland is not for sale<\/a>. But the Trump administration nevertheless says it is currently weighing a range of options on Greenland, including utilizing the\u00a0U.S. military<\/a>\u00a0or cutting a deal to purchase it from Denmark.<\/p>\n Read more CNBC coverage on Greenland<\/p>\n Government officials have also mulled sending lump sums of cash to Greenlanders in order to sway them to join the U.S., Reuters<\/a> reported Thursday.<\/p>\n Asked on Friday how much those payments could be, Trump said, “I’m not talking about money for Greenland, yet.”<\/p>\n “I might talk about that, but right now we are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not,” Trump said.<\/p>\n “Because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor,” he said.<\/p>\n Trump said that while he is a “big fan” of Denmark, “the fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean that they own the land. [I’m] sure we had lots of boats go there also.”<\/p>\n “So we’re going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult,” he said.<\/p>\n