Fox News host Sean Hannity has thrown his support behind the idea of the U.S. paying Greenland’s 56,000 residents $100,000 each as part of a deal to take over the territory, calling the idea “a no-brainer.”
Reuters reported earlier this month that Trump administration officials had discussed paying Greenlanders directly as one way to take control of the Arctic island from Denmark, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplaying the possibility of seizing it by force.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt subsequently admitted that President Donald Trump’s top aides were “looking at what a potential purchase would look like” without making a definite commitment.
Discussing the $5.6 billion plan on Monday’s episode of Hannity, the presenter told his guest, Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt, that he was entirely behind the proposal.
“Donald Trump’s forever in a state of negotiation,” Hannity told Schmitt. “Everything’s negotiable. A $100,000 for every person in Greenland – on average making 60 grand a year – Denmark’s not exactly been generous to them.
“They don’t have the ability to help them take their natural resources to the next level and enrich every person in Greenland. We do… I don’t know. Seems like a no-brainer to me.”
“This is very top of mind for him,” Schmitt said in reply. “This is something that he’s very serious about, and I am glad he is.”
The senator went on to advise Europeans to “pivot away from this pride they’re exhibiting and understand the United States of America is the only country on the planet that can protect Greenland and the NATO alliance by acquiring Greenland.”
Trump has ramped up his rhetoric about acquiring the territory in recent days, threatening America’s European allies with higher tariffs if they refuse to support his dream and insisting the U.S. needs to assume control of Greenland to safeguard its own national security interests amid renewed threats from China and Russia.
Denmark has responded by increasing its military presence on the island.
Meanwhile, in a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store released Monday, the president complained about Store’s country not giving him the Nobel Peace Prize last year and said that, in light of that disappointment: “I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America.
“Denmark cannot protect that land from Russia or China, and why do they have a ‘right of ownership’ anyway? There are no written documents, it’s only that a boat landed there hundreds of years ago, but we had boats landing there, also.”
He has since posted provocative AI images on Truth Social of himself planting the Stars-and-Stripes in Greenland’s soil and showing off a map to his European counterparts in the Oval Office marking the territory, as well as Canada and Venezuela, as American land.
As for Hannity, his enthusiasm for the payment scheme marks a sharp change in attitude, given that, as recently as January 9, he interviewed the president and asked how his focus on foreign policy concerns over the New Year could be squared with his “America First” agenda.
Noting that Trump had “dedicated a lot of time, energy, and resources” to overseas matters, particularly compared to his first term, Hannity asked him: “How is that in America First’s interest, because that’s what you stand for?”
The president responded with a rambling answer about the importance of stability in the Middle East, but the question was arguably of greater significance.
In asking it, Hannity was inviting Trump to allay concerns raised by the likes of former GOP congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who argued he had lost sight of the domestic priorities about which his base cared most. The president did not take him up on it.
A keen exponent of “America First,” Hannity previously hailed the end of Joe Biden’s tenure in the White House by saying, “Thankfully, this very sad, pathetic chapter in American history is now coming to an end. ‘America First’ is back in a big way.”
He subsequently applauded Trump last April when he announced his controversial reciprocal tariffs program, seeking to reset the terms of international trade, by declaring emphatically: “This is what it means to be America First.”
Trump live: The president’s record-breaking year of executive orders and deportations
FBI denies shutting down civil rights investigation into ICE shooter Jonathan Ross
Why Greenland shows only one rule applies in Trump’s dangerous global power-grab
Newsom roasts world leaders for ‘rolling over’ for Trump
Trump-Greenland latest: Macron hits out at ‘bullies’ after another spate of threats
Trump leaks personal messages from Macron and Rutte responding to Greenland moves
