Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz sparked outrage after claiming that becoming part of America would be the "greatest gift" for Greenland if President Donald Trump follows through and seizes the territory from Denmark.
Greenland is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark and is, alongside the Faroe Islands, the only other autonomous territory within the Kingdom. Citizens of both Greenland and the Faroe Islands are full citizens of Denmark. As one of the Overseas Countries and Territories of the European Union, Greenland’s citizens are also recognized as EU citizens.
Yesterday, the White House said it was not ruling out military action to acquire Greenland from Denmark, a NATO ally. Under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, NATO’s collective defense clause, an attack on one member state is treated as an attack on the entire alliance.
Cruz said annexing Greenland "is a very serious policy proposal" and shared a tidbit from a conversation he had with Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark's U.S. ambassador:
"I said, 'Listen, Denmark is our friend. You're our ally. You will continue to be our friend and ally but friends and allies can have conversations."
"And the ambassador said, 'Greenland's not for sale.' I said, 'That's fine. Everything's for sale. We're gonna have a conversation and by the way, if you maintain that, one of the things this has produced is a growing independence movement in Greenland and if you do nothing you may end up getting nothing for Greenland because they break off on their own."
"I find it quite plausible that the Greenlanders, there are about 50,000 of them, would say, 'Wait a second, I get to be an American?' To become an American is in many ways the greatest gift we can give anyone on planet Earth."
You can hear what Cruz said in the video below.
Cruz was swiftly criticized.
Earlier this week, Trump told reporters that "we need Greenland from the standpoint of national security and Denmark is not going to be able to do it." He has since said he was not convinced the NATO alliance would come to Washington’s aid in a crisis.
Trump argued—as he has many times before—that before his first term, U.S. allies were failing to pay their fair share for defense while relying on America’s security umbrella, and claimed that without the United States, Russia and China would “have zero fear of NATO.”
Eight European leaders have moved to defend Greenland. In a joint statement, the leaders said Greenland’s security must be guaranteed collectively through NATO and in full respect of the will of its people.
The statement was signed by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, and was endorsed by the leaders of the Netherlands, Greece, Luxembourg, and Slovenia.
The leaders said "security in the Arctic must be ... achieved collectively, in conjunction with NATO allies including the United States by upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders."
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