Donald Trump’s escalating calls for the United States to seize or otherwise obtain Greenland has ignited fresh criticism from the president’s own Republican party, with some saying it could hurt the US economically or strain the Nato military alliance.
Such Republicans included US senators Thom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski, who were part of a bipartisan group to travel to Denmark to discuss concerns in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.
Both Tillis and Murkowski sharply criticized new tariffs threatened on Saturday by Trump on a slew of European countries – including Denmark, Germany, France and the UK – until the US is allowed to purchase Greenland.
Murkowski wrote on X that the tariffs were “unnecessary, punitive, and a profound mistake”, coming after Nato allies deployed troops in Greenland on Thursday in response to Trump’s threats to forcefully take the Arctic island if needed.
“They will push our core European allies further away while doing nothing to advance US national security,” Murkowski maintained. “We are already seeing the consequences of these measures in real time: our Nato allies are being forced to divert attention and resources to Greenland, a dynamic that plays directly into [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin’s hands by threatening the stability of the strongest coalition of democracies the world has ever seen.”
She urged Congress to exercise its authority over tariffs to ensure they are “not weaponized in ways that harm our alliances and undermine American leadership”.
Tillis, for his part, wrote on X: “This response to our own allies for sending a small number of troops to Greenland for training is bad for America, bad for American businesses, and bad for America’s allies. It’s great for Putin, [Chinese leader] Xi [Jiping] and other adversaries who want to see Nato divided.”
Tillis added that “actively pushing for coercive action to seize territory of an ally is beyond stupid”.
“It hurts the legacy of President Trump and undercuts all the work he has done to strengthen the Nato alliance over the years,” Tillis maintained.
Mike Pence, the US vice-president during Trump’s first White House term, separately said he believed “the current posture … does threaten to fracture that strong relationship, not just with Denmark, but with all of our Nato allies”.
“Denmark is a very strong ally of the United States of American,” Pence said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.
Meanwhile, the Republican US House member Michael McCaul expressed similar concerns, cautioning that a US military intervention in Greenland would probably spell disaster for the Nato alliance.
Appearing on ABC’s This Week, McCaul said: “The fact is, the president has full military access to Greenland to protect us from any threat” that could materialize on the Arctic island.
“So, if he wants to purchase Greenland, that’s one thing,” he continued. “But for him to militarily invade would turn … Nato on its very head and, in essence, press a war with Nato itself. It would end up abolishing Nato as we know it.”
Trump has repeatedly argued that US control of the island is necessary for national security, pointing to concerns about Russia and China expanding their influence in the Arctic. That is why he has repeatedly floated multiple ways of acquiring Greenland, ranging from purchasing the territory to the possibility of a military takeover.
During a Sunday appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, Republican US senator Rand Paul weighed in, saying it “ridiculous” to portray Greenland as some urgent situation.
“There’s no emergency with Greenland,” Paul said.
Trump has insisted that Denmark cannot be relied upon to protect Greenland in the case of a confrontation with China or Russia, even as he has also said that “something will work out” with respect to the future governance of the Danish territory.
The goal of the bipartisan delegation of US lawmakers who traveled to meet with Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen was to emphasize the Republican dissent to any suggestion that the United States should forcefully seize Greenland.
Polling also shows a substantial majority of Americans oppose taking control of the island.
Nonetheless, former US House speaker Newt Gingrich was one Republican who seemed unconcerned about Trump’s approach.
Gingrich went on Sunday’s Cats Roundtable radio program and called Trump’s posture with Greenland “a lot of noise to set up a negotiation to get what he wants”.
That “is tourist rights, economic rights, mineral rights and national security rights”, Gingrich said.
Gingrich pointed to Greenland’s abundance of natural resources and noted that China, Russia and the US all have an interest in accessing its minerals. He also called Greenland’s oil and gas reserves “a huge economic opportunity”.
