Why Trump is pushing to take Greenland
January 18, 2026
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Quick Take
Ian Bremmer, political scientist and president of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media, shares insights on global political events.
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Ian Bremmer breaks down a sudden and serious transatlantic crisis: President Trump’s insistence that the United States must have sovereignty over Greenland.
This is not a negotiation over security guarantees, expanded US bases, or Arctic cooperation, all which Denmark and Greenland have said they would accommodate. Instead, Washington has drawn a red line: no deal unless the US owns Greenland outright. That position, reinforced by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has triggered threats of tariffs against European countries supporting Denmark and raised questions about America’s reliability inside NATO.
European leaders believe this push isn’t really about security or critical minerals. Ian says many see it as a legacy play driven by Trump’s ego and something Greenlanders would never vote for and Denmark will not accept. The deeper risk, Ian warns, is structural: “The more the United States unilaterally undermines the collective security trust of NATO, the stronger the argument becomes that only American territory is truly protected.”
The bigger risk is strategic: by undermining allied trust, the US strengthens the argument that only American territory receives ironclad protection. That logic may appeal in Washington, but it accelerates fragmentation inside NATO and the EU.
With Trump and European leaders heading to Davos, the question is whether diplomacy can produce a climbdown, or whether Greenland becomes the next major rupture in the global order.
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