Republican bill seeks to greenlight Trump’s takeover of Greenland – National

A Republican congressman has introduced legislation that would give U.S. President Donald Trump the authority to annex Greenland and even make it a U.S. state, despite opposition from other members of the party to the threatened takeover of a NATO territory.

Rep. Randy Fine of Florida, a staunch Trump ally, announced his Greenland Annexation and Statehood Act on Monday as a bid to support Trump’s national security goals in the Arctic and “put our adversaries on notice.”

The two-page bill would authorize Trump to “take such steps as may be necessary, including by seeking to enter into negotiations with the Kingdom of Denmark, to annex or otherwise acquire Greenland as a territory of the United States.”

It would also create a framework for Trump to seek expedited congressional approval “to admit the newly acquired territory as a state.”

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Fine told Fox News it was important to “say the Congress stands behind” Trump’s desire for Greenland and argued U.S. ownership would benefit the territory’s population.

“The poverty rate in Greenland is much, much higher than it is in Denmark. The country is run by socialists, and it is not in America’s interests to have a territory that large between the United States and Russia run by socialists,” Fine said.

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Trump says US will acquire Greenland ‘whether they like it or not’

Trump has long argued the U.S. should control Greenland but has escalated his rhetoric in recent weeks, saying a takeover will happen “whether they like it or not.” The White House has repeatedly declined to rule out military action, though Trump and other administration officials have said a negotiated deal or purchase is preferable.

Asked if he would support using military force, Fine told Fox News, “I think the best way to acquire Greenland is voluntarily.”

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet with Danish and Greenlandic officials in Washington on Wednesday.

Greenland’s government has grown more forceful in pushing back against Trump, saying this week it “cannot accept” a U.S. takeover “in any way” and affirming the territory’s security is a NATO responsibility.

“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and Greenland party leaders said in a joint statement Friday.

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Danish, U.S. and Greenland officials to meet over White House’s annexation threats

Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for business and mineral resources, said Tuesday that people in Greenland are “very, very worried” about the U.S. rhetoric, which she called “unfathomable.”

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“People are not sleeping, children are afraid, and it just fills everything these days. And we can’t really understand it,” Nathanielsen said at a meeting with lawmakers in Britain’s Parliament.

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Prime Minister Mark Carney and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand have voiced support for Greenland and Denmark’s sovereignty without directly criticizing Trump’s comments. Anand is set to attend the opening of Canada’s new consulate in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, in the coming weeks.

Republicans push back on Trump’s aims for Greenland

Although Fine and some other Republicans in Congress have voiced support for Trump’s vision of a Greenland under U.S. control, there are others in the party who have pushed back.

After Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller made the case for acquiring Greenland and asserting the U.S. as a “superpower” in a CNN interview last week, Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska called the comments “really dumb” on social media.

A separate post by Bacon said it was “embarrassing for the U.S.” after a group of NATO allies issued a joint statement reaffirming Greenland’s sovereignty.

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“I hope Republicans stand up against this universally,” he told CNN. “This is appalling. Greenland is a NATO ally. Denmark is one of our best friends … so the way we’re treating them is really demeaning and it has no upside.”

Bacon has also signed onto a Democratic bill introduced in the U.S. House on Monday that would block Trump from taking military action against any NATO member, which would include Greenland.

Republican Rep. Blake Moore of Utah and Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who co-chair the bipartisan Congressional Friends of Denmark Caucus, said in a joint statement that seeking to acquire Greenland “needlessly undermines” cooperation with Denmark and NATO.

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“Sabre-rattling about annexing Greenland is needlessly dangerous,” the pair said. “The Kingdom of Denmark is a NATO ally and one of America’s closest partners. An attack on Greenland — a crucial part of that alliance — would tragically be an attack on NATO.”

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Will NATO survive Trump’s Greenland threats?

Opposition has been wider in the U.S. Senate, where multiple senators have had harsh words against the possibility of U.S. military action.

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“To invade Greenland and attack its sovereignty — a fellow NATO country — would be weapons-grade stupid,” Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told reporters last week.

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, in an interview with ABC on Sunday, acknowledged Greenland could be a national security asset for the U.S. but that Trump’s approach was not winning support from Greenlanders or Republicans.

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“Let’s say you wanted to buy Greenland — and I’m not disputing that that might be something we might want,” he said. “You don’t get there by angering and denigrating the people who live there and saying, ‘We’re going to march the Marines in and take it if you don’t sell it to us.’ It doesn’t make them very willing to sell to us.

“I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone in Greenland for it, but you’d also be hard-pressed to find somebody in Washington who’s for a military invasion on either side of the aisle.”

Paul’s fellow Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the former longtime Republican leader in the Senate, said in a statement that “threats and intimidation by U.S. officials over American ownership of Greenland are as unseemly as they are counterproductive.”

“The northernmost reaches of the globe may well shape our strategic competition with major adversaries like Russia and China for decades to come. But if America behaves as though winning that competition requires trampling the sovereignty, respect, and trust of our allies, we will surely lose it.”

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Tensions rise as Trump revives talk of Greenland annexation

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina issued a joint statement with Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire urging the Trump administration to respect Denmark and Greenland’s statements that the territory “is not for sale.” The two senators co-chair the bipartisan Senate NATO Observer Group.

Many of the statements have noted Denmark matches the U.S. in its share of GDP spent on defence and efforts to boost its military presence in Greenland, as well as a 1951 treaty that allows the U.S. to do the same under NATO cooperation.

A number of the Republicans who have criticized Trump — including Bacon, McConnell and Tillis — have announced their plans to retire ahead of this year’s midterm elections.

A bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation is headed to Copenhagen for meetings on Friday and Saturday in an attempt to show unity between the United States and Denmark.