Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz is receiving major side-eye after video from 2016 resurfaced, reminding observers that he once warned that then-candidate—and unfortunately once again-President—Donald Trump might nuke Denmark if elected.
Cruz made the remark to reporters while campaigning himself in Goffstown, New Hampshire, shortly after winning that year's Iowa caucuses.
Cruz said:
"We need a commander in chief, not a Twitterer in chief. We need someone with judgment and the temperament to keep this country safe."
“I don’t know anyone who would be comfortable with someone who behaves this way having his finger on the button. I mean, we’re liable to wake up one morning and Donald, if he were president, would have nuked Denmark. That’s not the temperament of a leader to keep this country safe.”
You can hear what he said in the video below.
The video's reappearance comes just days after Cruz made headlines for claiming that becoming part of the United States would be the "greatest gift" for Greenland if Trump follows through and seizes the territory from Denmark.
Cruz said annexing Greenland "is a very serious policy proposal" and that the U.S. should obtain the autonomous territory, arguing that "to become an American is in many ways the greatest gift we can give anyone on planet Earth."
People were not impressed with how Cruz has rolled over—and called him out now that his decade-old hypothetical is coming closer to reality.
Meanwhile, several European NATO allies are moving to bolster their presence in Greenland, deploying small contingents of military personnel for joint exercises with Denmark.
The deployments were announced as Danish and Greenlandic officials met Wednesday in Washington with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance, just hours after Trump wrote on Truth Social that “anything less” than U.S. control of Greenland was “unacceptable.”
The talks produced little concrete progress. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said the discussions were “frank but also constructive,” but acknowledged that a “fundamental disagreement” remains between the sides.
Denmark also announced it would expand its military footprint in Greenland “in close cooperation with NATO allies.” Germany, Sweden, France, Norway, the Netherlands, and Finland have since confirmed that they will send military personnel to Greenland this week as part of those efforts.
Canada and France have separately announced plans to open consulates in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, in the coming weeks.
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