Trump Says U.S. Will 'Get Greenland One Way or the Other'

In his March 2025 address to a joint session of Congress, President Trump revived his push to acquire Greenland, saying the U.S. would get the territory "one way or the other" and would make Greenlanders wealthier in the process, while also saying he supported their right to determine their own future. He did not rule out using military or economic force to achieve the goal.

Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark with its own government and electorate; it is not Denmark's or the U.S.'s to trade or annex unilaterally. Greenland's prime minister and other officials pushed back firmly, reaffirming that Greenlanders do not want to become either Danish or American.

The remarks fit a broader pattern in Trump's second-term foreign policy rhetoric, in which allied and autonomous territories are discussed in transactional, real-estate-like terms rather than through traditional diplomatic norms. The comments drew concern from European allies and renewed debate over Arctic strategic competition, without producing any concrete U.S. policy or legal pathway toward acquisition.