The Pentagon on Wednesday said it was “not aware” of any plans to invade Greenland if ordered to do so, after President-elect Trump a day earlier refused to rule out using military force to seize Denmark’s autonomous territory.
“I’m certainly not going to get into hypothetical situations. I think that’s for the incoming administration to speak to,” deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters when asked of any contingency plans.
“We’re concerned with the real national security concerns that confront this building every day,” she added, pointing to U.S. support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, efforts to quell Middle East conflicts, and pacing challenges against China in the Indo-Pacific.
Asked whether the Pentagon had ever drafted a plan to militarily take Greenland, Singh said she was “not aware of any plans to do that.”
Trump in a Tuesday press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida declared that the U.S. needs both Greenland and the Panama Canal for national and economic security, but has not laid out any concrete plans for acquiring either.
“People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up, because we need it for national security,” Trump said, referring to Greenland.
When asked if he could rule out military action or economic coercion to gain both countries, he replied: “I can’t assure you on either of those two.”
“I’m not going to commit to that. Now it might be that you’ll have to do something,” Trump said.
Trump in his first term mused about buying Greenland from Denmark, which has been unified with the territory for more than 200 years. At the time, the Danish prime minister rebuffed him, calling the thought “absurd.”
But the incoming president appears far more fixed on the idea this time around, with his son, Donald Trump Jr., visiting the 57,000-person island on Monday in a trip that did not involve any official government meetings.
The island is seen as valuable to U.S. national security interests given its proximity to Russia and China’s steadily increasing activities in the Arctic.
The U.S. last tried to buy Greenland in 1946, when it offered Denmark $100 million in gold, a deal the country rejected.
The U.S. has a military base on the island known as Pituffik Space Base. The installation includes an airfield that operates year-round and is part of mutual defense agreements between Washington and Copenhagen.
Asked about Trump’s comments, outgoing Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that “the idea expressed about Greenland is obviously not a good one, but maybe more important, it’s obviously not going to happen, so we probably shouldn’t waste a lot of time talking about it.”
