Trump: The U.S. ‘Needs Greenland Very Badly’ For National Security

 President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday night during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago that the U.S. needed to take control of Greenland “very badly” for national security.

Trump made the remarks after he has reignited the issue in recent weeks.

When asked by a reporter how much it would cost for the U.S. to purchase Greenland from Denmark, Trump said, “Well, maybe no price tag.”

“Look, we’re gonna have to see what happens, because Denmark, we need this for national security,” Trump said. “We need Greenland very badly. You look at the Russian ships, the Chinese ships, they’re all over the place. They’re surrounding. Now they have for a long time, that’s a lane, but we need that for national security.”

“So I don’t know that Denmark has any right, title, and interest, and we’re going to find that out,” he continued.

Trump said that Denmark understandably does not want to give up the island, but it will pay a price if it doesn’t.

“Now Denmark maybe doesn’t like it, but then we can’t be too happy with Denmark,” he said. “And maybe things have to happen with respect to Denmark having to do with tariffs.”

Trump said he believes Denmark has “to do this I think for the free world.”

“We need that to protect the free world, it’s very important, and getting more important every year,” he continued.

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Trump on Tuesday repeatedly refused to rule out using the U.S. military to acquire Greenland and the Panama Canal when asked if he could “assure the world” that he would not “use military or economic coercion” to acquire the two areas.

“No,” Trump said. “I can’t assure you, you’re talking about Panama and Greenland. No, I can’t assure you on either of those two, but I can say this, we need them for economic security. The Panama Canal was built for our military.”

 

The reporter then asked whether Trump would commit to not using the military.

“I’m not going to commit to that,” Trump said. “No, it might be that you’ll have to do something.”