Once again, U.S. President Donald Trump says he’s confident his country will gain control of Greenland, reasserting his claim that the autonomous Danish territory’s 57,000 residents would be on board with a potential acquisition.
His comments came during a short question-and-answer period with reporters aboard Air Force One Saturday evening as he flew to Miami from Las Vegas.
“I do believe Greenland, we’ll get — because it really has to do with freedom of the world. It has nothing to do with the United States, other than we’re the one that can provide the freedom,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One this weekend, per the Financial Times.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with the press, alongside White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt (R), on board Air Force One after departing Las Vegas en route to Miami on Jan. 25, 2025.
Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images
It’s a desire Trump has reiterated since 2016, despite leaders in Greenland and other Nordic countries insisting it’s not for sale.
On Monday, France24 reported that Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had met with her regional counterparts over the weekend to discuss defence and security, and while she didn’t mention Greenland by name, she said they all “shared the gravity of the situation.”
“The Nordic countries have always stood together,” Frederiksen wrote on social media on Sunday evening, sharing a photograph of her hosting a dinner in her home with the leaders of Finland, Norway and Sweden.
“And faced with the new and more unpredictable reality that lies ahead, close and good alliances and friendships are increasingly important.”
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Five days before Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, Frederiksen spoke on the phone with the president — a call that was described as “contentious” and “aggressive” by the New York Times, which spoke to anonymous European officials who were briefed on the 45-minute phone call.
The sources told the outlet that Frederiksen “made various suggestions for more cooperation on military and economic issues, but insisted that Greenland, which already hosts an important American base, was not for sale” and that it was up to Greenland to determine its own fate.
And, just last week, Danish politician Anders Vistisen issued a strong public message to Trump while speaking in European Parliament, which ultimately landed him in trouble for telling the president to “f–k off.”
“Dear President Trump, listen very carefully,” Vistisen said on Jan. 21. “Greenland has been part of the Danish kingdom for 800 years. It’s an integrated part of our country. It is not for sale.”
“Let me put it in words you might understand,” he continued. “Mr. Trump, f–k off!”
On the same day, Greenland Prime Minister Mute Edege insisted Greenlanders “don’t want to be American.”
“We are Greenlanders. We don’t want to be Americans. We don’t want to be Danish either. Greenland’s future will be decided by Greenland. Our country and our people will decide what happens to Greenland.”
Under a 2009 agreement with Denmark, Greenland can only declare independence after a successful referendum — which Egede has suggested might be held in tandem with the island’s upcoming parliamentary election in April.
Earlier this month, Trump said he wouldn’t rule out using force or economic pressure to make Greenland part of the United States. Trump said it was a matter of national security for the U.S., a country that already has the sole military base in the territory, in the northern part of the island.
A former Danish ambassador to the U.S., Friis Arne Petersen, told French newspaper Le Figaro that “Europe, Greenland and the rest of the world must take Donald Trump’s statements very seriously, because they were carefully prepared.”
“The terms used and their context left no room for interpretation,” Petersen said, adding that he believes Trump’s interest in buying Greenland during his first presidency was more commercial, but his recent interest shows a shift to concerns about security.
On Saturday’s flight, Trump also made some of his most extensive comments about his recent suggestions that Canada could become part of the U.S.
“I love Canada,” he said. “I have so many friends up in Canada. And they like us, and they like me. But Canada’s been taking advantage of the United States for years, and we’re not going to let that happen.”
He suggested that the U.S. is losing hundreds of millions annually to Canada in trade deficits while Canada does “almost 90 per cent of their business with the United States.”
“I don’t want to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on supporting the country unless that country is a state. And, if it’s a state, the people of Canada will pay a much lower tax.”
He said Canadians would also “have no military problems, they’d be much more secure in every way, and I think it’s a great thing for Canada.”
“I view it as, honestly, a country that should be a state,” he said. “Then, they’ll get much better treatment, much better care and much lower taxes and they’ll be much more secure.”
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—With files from Global News’ Katie Scott and The Associated Press
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