Trump says that we 'will go as far as we have' to control Greenland control

London – President Donald Trump said that the United States “will go as far as we have to go” to obtain control of Greenland, before a planned visit to the Arctic Island by vice president JD Vance, who has caused criticism of Greenland and Denmark.

Vance, the second Lady Usha Vance and energy secretary Chris Wright will take the United States delegation to visit the base of the Pituffik military space in the northwest of the island, after having reduced the plans for a broader and longer visit. Originally, the American group planned to visit the capital of Greenland, Nuuk and a dog sled race.

Trump showed no indications of softening his ambition to take control of the island, which is an autonomous territory but part of the kingdom of Denmark.

“We need Greenland for national security and international security,” Trump said, taking the questions of journalists in the Oval office.

Vessel of the Danish Navy P572 Lauge Koch patrol the waters in Nuuk, Greenland, March 11, 2025.

Odd Andersen/AFP through Getty Images

“So, I think, we will go as far as we have to go,” he continued. “We need Greenland. And the world needs us to have Greenland, including Denmark. Denmark has to have us Greenland. And, you know, we’ll see what happens. But if we don’t have Greenland, we can’t have great international security.”

Trump added: “I see it from the point of view of security, we have to be there.”

Trump also said he understood that “JD could be going”, referring to the vice president, but offered no detail about the trip. Vance is expected to travel to Greenland on Friday.

The Prime Minister of Greenland, Mute Egede, earlier this week, called the next visit of US officials part of a “very aggressive American pressure against the Greenland community” and asked the international community to rebuke it.

After the United States announced that the visit would be reduced only to include the Pituffik base, the Danish defense minister, Troels Lund Poulen, said the decision was “wise.”

Trump has been repeatedly, both in his first and second terms, the possibility that the United States obtains Greenland, either through purchase or other means. During his March speech to a joint session of Congress, Trump said that the United States would acquire the strategic territory “in one way or another.”

The Prime Minister of Greenland, Mute Bourup Egede, dismissed Trump’s comments. “Greenland belongs to the Greenlandés,” he wrote on social networks.

“We are not Americans, we are not Danish because we are Greenlands. This is what Americans and their leaders need to understand, we cannot buy ourselves and we cannot be ignored.”