Trump plans to use US military to acquire Greenland: White House

President Donald Trump and his team are considering “a series of options” in order to acquire Greenland — including “the use of the U.S. military,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNBC on Tuesday.

The statement represents an escalation of the Trump administration’s already aggressive rhetoric toward Greenland, which the president has long sought to incorporate into the United States.

Trump said Sunday that the United States needs Greenland for national security purposes, pointing to Russian and Chinese activities in the region near the Arctic island.

Greenland is a territory of Denmark which, like the United States, is a member of the international military alliance the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

THE leaders of Denmark and other European NATO states issued a joint statement Tuesday morning pushing back against Trump’s increasingly vocal desire to obtain Greenland.

Leavitt’s new comment on Greenland came after the release of that joint statement.

“President Trump has made it clear that the acquisition of Greenland is a U.S. national security priority and is vital to deterring our adversaries in the Arctic region,” Leavitt said.

“The President and his team are discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy objective and, of course, reliance on the United States military is always an option available to the Commander in Chief,” she said.

Trump has frequently spoken about the U.S. absorption of Greenland and Canada, as well as the Panama Canal. These controversial comments sparked international criticism, although they were dismissed by some as unserious and it is unlikely to materialize in American foreign policy.

The president’s renewed talks on Greenland have sparked more serious concerns in recent days, after the U.S. military entered Venezuela and managed to capture that country’s leader, Nicolas Maduroand his wife, Cilia Flores.

Trump said after the operation that “we are going to lead the country until we can make a safe, appropriate and wise transition.”

Trump also said that American oil companies will enter Venezuela and “fix” the country’s energy infrastructure, and that these companies will “be reimbursed” for their efforts.

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