A diplomatic crisis began in 2025 when the Donald Trump's second presidency of the United States administration sought to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm—a treaty ally of the United States and co-member of NATO, and a member of the European Union (EU). The crisis intensified in early 2026 when Trump refused to rule out the use of military force for this annexation and threatened a 25% import tax on goods from several European nations unless Denmark ceded the territory to the United States. Denmark's refusal was supported by the EU and several other NATO members, reigniting earlier concerns of a US–EU trade war. Within weeks, Trump backed down, pledging not to use force or tariffs to annex Greenland.
Trump had tried to purchase Greenland during his first presidency. After his 2024 re-election, in January 2026, he said "it may be a choice" whether to preserve NATO or seize Greenland, and in Dear Jonas, a letter leaked by Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Trump had said that he "no longer [felt] an obligation to think purely of Peace" after not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. A report by the Danish Defence Intelligence Service mentioned the United States as a potential threat to national security for the first time in its history, and Danish officials raised concerns about reports that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had assigned agents to spy on Greenland.
The Greenlandic and Danish prime ministers rejected any American takeover, saying they would defend Greenland in the event of an attack. Both NATO and EU members would be obliged to assist Denmark in the event of an attack. Denmark and eight NATO allies deployed forces to defend the territory. In response, Trump threatened a trade war against the EU, leading European politicians to suspend a proposed EU–US trade agreement and consider placing sanctions on the US.
Trump's threats led to large protests in Greenland and Denmark. A YouGov poll found that only 8% of Americans supported an invasion of Greenland, with 73% opposed. Trump's actions faced heavy opposition in Congress from both major parties, with Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson describing Trump's threats as "completely inappropriate" and a bipartisan congressional delegation travelling to Copenhagen to support Denmark–United States relations. The crisis was described as one of the most erratic episodes involving an American president, prompting scrutiny of Trump's age and fitness for office.
On 21 January, Trump reversed course, first ruling out military force and then abandoning tariff threats after talks with NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte reached what Trump called a "framework of a future deal". Greenland and Denmark ruled out any deal altering the sovereignty of Greenland and Denmark, with Trump's comments referring to pre-existing commitments from a 1951 US–Denmark treaty. At the 2026 Ankara NATO summit in July, Trump restated his opinion that it would be better if Greenland was controlled by the US and not by Denmark. On 18 September 2026, the United States, Denmark, and Greenland reached an agreement in which the United States would receive the rights to an expanded military footprint in Greenland with greater security control, without, according to the Danish and Greenlandic governments, conditionally transferring much military sovereignty of Greenland to the United States. The agreement was signed on 22 September 2026.
Background
During the first Trump administration, US president Donald Trump said that the United States should buy Greenland. The governments of Denmark and Greenland clarified that Greenland is not for sale and cannot be sold under the Danish constitution, and the Danish government has always rejected such proposals, which Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called "an absurd discussion". Greenland invited American investment, however, stating that "we're open for business, not for sale".
In December 2024, President-elect Trump, before the onset of his second administration, reiterated his interest in the United States assuming control of Greenland, stating that "for purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity."
History of Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, and has been associated with the Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark and Norway for more than a millennium, beginning in 986 AD when Norse settlers from what is now Norway and Iceland settled Greenland. The 13th century saw the arrival of the Inuit, the ancestors of today's majority population. After around 400 years, the Norse settlement in Greenland is believed to have died out in the late 15th century, but the legends of it persisted in Scandinavia. This prompted King Christian IV to send an expedition to Greenland in 1605 to locate the lost Eastern Norse Settlement and reassert sovereignty over Greenland. Norwegian priest Hans Egede reestablished a permanent Dano-Norwegian presence in 1721, founding the town of Godthaab (now Nuuk). Today's population is mainly Inuit, with a smaller Danish population, and many people are of mixed Inuit and Danish origin. Greenlanders often have close family, personal, and cultural ties to Denmark, with thousands living there.
Greenland formally became part of the Kingdom of Norway in 1261, when the Norse inhabitants submitted to the King of Norway. Norway then entered a union with Denmark in 1380. Under the 1814 Treaty of Kiel, Greenland remained with the Danish Crown as part of the settlement with Sweden following the Napoleonic Wars. Denmark declared full sovereignty over all of Greenland, including the uninhabited parts, in 1921, in the aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1933, Norway, which occupied part of Eastern Greenland, accepted a ruling of the Permanent Court of International Justice affirming Danish sovereignty over all of Greenland and renounced its claim.
The 1953 Constitution of Denmark ended Greenland's status as a colony, integrating it fully into the Danish state as a regular county, as part of decolonization efforts and with the consent of the Greenland Provincial Council. In the 1979 Greenlandic home rule referendum, Denmark granted home rule to Greenland, leading to the establishment of a local government authority with responsibility for local matters, but Greenland remains part of the Kingdom of Denmark, with the central government in Copenhagen solely responsible for defence and foreign policy. As part of the Nordic region and the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland is an associate member of the Nordic Council. Greenland is one of the Overseas Countries and Territories of the EU. Greenlanders are Danish citizens and therefore also EU citizens.
In 2009, Greenland was recognised by the Kingdom of Denmark and under international law as a people entitled to external self-determination. Most political parties in Greenland favour independence from Denmark as a long-term goal, with a draft constitution for an independent Greenlandic state presented by lawmakers in 2023, but the majority does not favour severing ties with Denmark in the short term.
Military presence in Greenland
Denmark is one of the twelve original founding member states of NATO, and signed the Greenland Defense Agreement with the United States in 1951, allowing the American military to operate in Greenland with Danish consent under a NATO framework. At its peak, approximately 10,000 American military personnel were stationed in Greenland, including about 6,000 at what is now Pituffik Space Base. After the Cold War, Greenland became a lower strategic priority for the United States, which gradually reduced its presence to roughly 150 personnel by 2026. After the September 11 attacks in 2001, Denmark supplied military aid to the United States as part of its NATO Article 5 obligation, incurring 44 deaths in the Afghan War.
Denmark increased its Arctic defence and led a large NATO exercise in Greenland in 2025. The exercise involved more than 550 soldiers, including special forces, from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, and Germany. The Nordic countries also collaborate on Arctic defence through NATO exercises conducted across the region, such as the Joint Viking exercise in 2025. In 2025, Denmark announced a 14.6 billion kr. plan to boost Arctic defence.
Greenland is under the military command of the Joint Arctic Commander, Danish general Søren Andersen. The Arctic Command has around 150 permanent personnel, but regularly deploys units from across the Danish Defence forces, including the Arctic Response Force with aircraft and ships that stand ready to support forces in Greenland. The Sirius Dog Sled Patrol special forces unit operates around Daneborg in the northeast of Greenland, a national park, but only comprises a small part of Danish and allied military capabilities in Greenland. As of 2026, NATO members are in discussions about establishing a permanent NATO mission in Greenland, Arctic Sentry, modelled on the Baltic Sentry, following a proposal by Germany. Law enforcement in Greenland employs around 350 people. As of 2026, hundreds of elite Danish combat soldiers trained in arctic warfare have been deployed to Greenland, including the Chief of the Royal Danish Army, General Peter Harling Boysen, with Denmark stating its intention to send a "substantial contribution" of its armed forces there in response to the Greenland crisis. Denmark said the deployment might stay in Greenland for 1–2 years.
History of US recognition of Danish sovereignty over Greenland
In the 1826 General Convention of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation with the king of Denmark, the United States recognised Greenland as a northern possession of the king, and accepted the trade restrictions that Denmark imposed there. In the Treaty of the Danish West Indies, signed in 1916, the US government explicitly recognised Danish sovereignty over all of Greenland. In the 1941 US–Danish agreement, the American Government "reiterate[d] its recognition of and respect for the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark over Greenland". During World War II, the United States defended Greenland at the request of Danish and Greenlandic officials acting without approval from the central government of Denmark, while it was under Nazi occupation. In the 1951 Greenland Defense Agreement, the United States again recognised the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark over all of Greenland. In the 2004 amendment to the Greenland Defense Agreement, the United States recognised Greenland as "an equal part of the Kingdom of Denmark under the Constitution [with] a wide ranging Greenland Home Rule".
Donald Trump's first presidency
Since late 2018, Trump repeatedly privately and publicly discussed buying Greenland. The Trump administration "courted Greenlandic politicians with promises of American business investment, educational opportunities, and development aid". According to a report in the New Yorker, a 2019 delegation of American diplomats and national-security officials, dispatched to discuss mining of mineral and particularly rare-earth mineral resources, included members of the Greenland Policy Coordination Committee, a committee within the National Security Council "working to subvert the Kingdom of Denmark".
Timeline
From Donald Trump's reelection in 2024 and until his public reversal in January 2026, he refused to rule out an invasion of Greenland and engaged in actions and comments seen as provocations against Denmark. Danish national broadcaster DR divided Trump's plans to take over Greenland into three main phases, starting from December 2024: a charm offensive, pressure on the Danish government, and Greenlandic societal infiltration.
2025
In January 2025, before taking office, Trump stated he would not exclude using economic or military force against Greenland and that the United States needed the territory for national security. On 6 January 2025, he threatened to "tariff Denmark at a very high level" if it did not agree to Trump's plan.
On 11 January, Donald Trump Jr. went on a private visit to Greenland. Local media reported that his entourage passed out MAGA hats to locals and attempted to speak to residents on a speakerphone. Pipaluk Lynge, a Greenlandic member of parliament, called the visit "staged". Berlingske reported that an American military person asked the Joint Arctic Command to provide information about Greenlandic infrastructure.
In the following months, Republican congressman Buddy Carter introduced a bill in the United States Congress to advance efforts to annex Greenland and rename it Red, White, and Blueland and US vice president JD Vance visited, without invitation, the Pituffik Space Base, where he gave a speech about how Denmark had failed Greenlanders. Vance's visit was condemned by Greenlandic and Danish politicians, and described as a provocation. In connection with the visit, commander Susannah Meyers, the highest-ranking US officer in Greenland, said the Trump administration's threats against the Kingdom of Denmark "are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base". In response, Meyers was fired by Trump. American defence secretary Pete Hegseth all but acknowledged that The Pentagon had plans to invade Greenland, by refusing to rule out the option and by saying the Pentagon plans for all contingencies, although the Pentagon later clarified that it had not been asked to draw up such plans.
Denmark accused the Trump administration of conducting covert marketing campaigns intended to persuade Greenlanders to secede from Denmark. Americaninfluencers handed out dollar bills in the streets of Nuuk. This led to at least three American men with connections to Trump to be monitored by the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) for attempting to infiltrate Greenland, with the purpose of creating discord with Denmark by exploiting existing or fabricated disagreements.
In December 2025, Trump appointed Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland. The role was described as informal and one-sided. Landry said he would work to make Greenland part of the United States and intended to attend, uninvited, a traditional dog sled race. Denmark summoned the American ambassador, Ken Howery and Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen called Landry's statements "completely unacceptable", adding, "we insist that everyone – including the US – must show respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark".
2026
Asked: Are there limits on your global power?
Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It's the only thing that can stop me. I don't need international law. I'm not looking to hurt people.
— Donald Trump, 7 January 2026
New York Times White House correspondents wrote that "Mr. Trump's assessment... was the most blunt acknowledgment yet of his worldview. At its core is the concept that national strength, rather than laws, treaties and conventions, should be the deciding factor as powers collide."