Trump weighs options to acquire Greenland including using force

WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump and his team are weighing "a range of options" to acquire Denmark's Greenland, including "utilizing the US military," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.

"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," Leavitt told Xinhua in an emailed statement.

She said that "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."

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said Monday that nobody would fight the United States if it tried to seize Greenland, which is Denmark's autonomous territory.

It was "the formal position of the US government that Greenland should be part of the US," Miller said in an interview with CNN.

"We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense," Trump reiterated in a phone interview with The Atlantic on Sunday, reaffirming that Venezuela may not be the last country subject to US intervention while claiming it was up to others to decide what a US large-scale strike against Venezuela means for Greenland.

Hours after the US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro early Saturday morning, Miller's wife, Katie Miller, also a Trump ally, posted on X an image of a map of Greenland overlaid with the American flag, writing, "SOON."

"Our country isn't something you can deny or take over because you want to," Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Very basic international principles are being challenged" by Washington's repeated threats, Nielsen said.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned that "if the US chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops, including NATO and thus the security that has been established since the end of the Second World War."

Leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Britain and Denmark issued a joint statement on Tuesday, which said that "it is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland."

The leaders underscored that Arctic security remains a key priority for Europe, and it is critical for international and transatlantic security, noting that NATO has made clear that the Arctic region is a priority and European allies are increasing their presence in the area.

Greenland, a former Danish colony, was granted home rule in 1979. In 2009, Denmark passed the Act on Greenland Self-Government, expanding the island's authority over its domestic affairs. However, Denmark retains authority over Greenland's foreign, defense and security policy, according to the Prime Minister's Office of Denmark.

"Annexing Greenland would be a strategic catastrophe" for the United States, Casey Michel, head of the Human Rights Foundation's Combating Kleptocracy Program, warned on Tuesday.

"Any attempt by the United States to claim the island would quickly spiral out of control," Michel wrote on Foreign Policy. "What alliance could survive something like this? What ally would ever trust the US not to do the same in the future?"

"In a world of imperialism, as the saying goes, appetite grows with eating," said Michel.