European troops from at least seven different NATO countries reportedly began arriving in Greenland on Thursday, acting as a show of support for the autonomous territory of Denmark, and also a not-so-subtle show of defiance toward President Donald Trump. They include relatively small numbers of soldiers from the likes of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Finland and Norway, with French President Emmanuel Macron likewise noting on Thursday that his nation would be sending more “land, air and sea assets” soon, following an emergency defense cabinet meeting.
The message here seems clear: If Donald Trump is going to continue escalating tensions with the threat of military force in his private obsession with the U.S. acquiring the territory of Greenland, then he will be acting against citizens of at least seven different NATO allies. In the 76 years of NATO’s existence, none of its member states (currently 32 globally) have ever attacked another member. It also means that Trump will hold the ability to completely fracture the status quo of NATO in his hands, forcing what has long been theoretical policy (such as “an attack on one is an attack on all”) to be put to the test. How many NATO allies, including near neighbors like Canada, would step in to defend Greenland in the face of U.S. aggression? What kind of spiral of hostilities would this cause, and how might the likes of Russia and China take advantage of the chaos?
Russian and Chinese activity, it should be noted, is the official rationale for the increased European troop presence in Greenland, which could make it more difficult for the Trump administration to decry it. Should Trump eventually back down on this, I can already hear the MAGA talking heads drafting their “Trump’s brilliant strategy forced NATO to defend Greenland more aggressively, which is what he wanted all along” memos.
NATO isn’t messing around, friends.
— Wajahat Ali (@wajali.bsky.social) Jan 14, 2026 at 3:43 PM
After months of social media sniping, this week marked the first time that diplomats from the U.S., Denmark and Greenland itself finally met in person to attempt to bring the temperature down, while Trump simultaneously just kept fanning the flames. Discussions yesterday between Danish officials and both Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D. Vance didn’t seem to produce much anything of value, to hear the Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen tell it, given that the guy used the term “conquering” at one point. In a news conference after the meeting, he said the following: “It’s clear the President has this wish of conquering Greenland. We had what I will describe as a frank but also constructive discussion. The President has made his view clear, and we have a different position.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen could also hardly be more clear on this: “Greenland does not want to be owned by the USA. Greenland does not want to be governed by the USA. Greenland will not be part of the USA. We choose the Greenland we know today, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Now we are faced with a geopolitical crisis, and if we have to choose between the USA and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark.”
Not that any of this seems to matter to Trump, who has vowed that the U.S. will take direct control of Greenland “one way or the other.” The White House has consistently refused to rule out the possibility of military action to seize the territory, while simultaneously refusing to explain what that would mean for the role of the country in NATO, or the response of other major European powers. Trump has instead insisted that NATO should be welcoming and backing the U.S. acquisition of Greenland, saying that Greenland was “vital” for the creation of his absurdly expensive and purely theoretical “Golden Dome” missile defense system, whose stated budget is more than 25 times that of the National Cancer Institute.
The mercurial Trump’s positions on this kind of thing change so often, or evolve so rapidly, that it can be difficult to keep up with often conflicting rationales and stated reasons for why he wants to do anything. On the issue of Greenland, Trump has consistently stated that the U.S. needs to possess the territory to act as a check against the threat of Russia’s expanded influence and activity in the Arctic Ocean. But at the same time, Trump also sided with Russia’s Vladimir Putin just last week in assigning blame for the lack of a U.S.-brokered peace in the Ukraine-Russia war, saying that it was Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rather than Putin who stood in the way of a peace deal. This, despite the fact that it was Russia that rejected the last U.S. peace plan, responding with unprecedented new waves of missile attacks that have knocked out power, potentially to millions, amid freezing temperatures.
So Trump wants to restrain Russia’s power to operate in the Arctic, but he simultaneously wants their success in Ukraine. Regardless, we can’t help but fear the damage he could do with a single, impulsive decision in Greenland. All of Europe is no doubt hoping that Donald Trump will not be that stupid, but unfortunately that’s not something we can ever take for granted.
