Denmark boosts Greenland military spending after Trump comments

Denmark will spend more than $1.5 billion on the defense of Greenland, Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said on Tuesday, days after US President-elect Donald Trump declared that he wants the territory under American “ownership and control.”

Speaking to Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper, Poulsen said that Copenhagen will spend a “double digit billion amount” of krone, or at least $1.5 billion, on a package of measures aimed at increasing the Danish military presence in Greenland. The package includes two patrol boats, two long-range drones, two sled dog teams, and funding to upgrade one of the territory’s civilian airports to accommodate F-35 fighter jets, he said.

“For many years we have not invested enough in the Arctic, now we are planning a stronger presence,” he told the newspaper.

Two days earlier, Trump announced on his Truth Social platform 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.” 

Trump made similar comments during his first term in office, offering to buy Greenland from Denmark in what he said would be “essentially…a large real estate deal.”

Poulsen told Jyllands-Posten that the decision to increase military spending in Greenland was planned in advance, and that it was an “irony of fate” that it was announced immediately after Trump’s comments.

Greenland’s prime minister, Mute Egede, issued an angry response to Trump’s post. “Greenland is ours. We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom,” he declared, before adding that he welcomed increased trade and cooperation with the US.

Greenland gained home rule status from Denmark in 1979, although its defense and foreign policy is still decided in Copenhagen. Around 80% of the island is covered by a thick ice sheet, and two thirds of its territory lies above the Arctic Circle. Greenland is home to a large US Space Force base, which is the northernmost American military facility in the world.

Gaining control of Greenland would dramatically expand American access to the Arctic Ocean. At present, 50% of the Arctic coastline is Russian territory, and the region is of key strategic and sovereign importance for Moscow.

Trump is not the first US president to suggest purchasing Greenland. The idea was first floated by Andrew Johnson in the 1860s. Johnson ended up negotiating the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million in 1867.