US President Donald Trump estimated he may need to choose between NATO membership and control of Greenland, according to an interview published Monday in The New York Times. The comments came against the backdrop of a Sunday Bloomberg report that Britain and Germany are leading discussions about increasing European military presence in Greenland, aiming to demonstrate to Trump that the continent takes Arctic security seriously.
In the interview, conducted on Wednesday in the Oval Office and lasting about two hours, Trump was asked which priority ranked higher – acquiring Greenland or preserving NATO. "It may be a choice," he responded.
When asked whether he would send troops to Greenland if they didn't hand over the territory voluntarily – meaning invading and conquering territory under the sovereignty of a NATO and European Union member – Trump replied, "We already have troops there," referring to American bases on the island that have existed under a Denmark-US agreement since the end of World War II and allow the US to significantly increase its presence on the island. When pressed about sending more troops to "take military control," Trump confirmed, "Sure, I'll have more."
Trump explained why ownership of the island matters to him beyond maintaining military bases. "That's what I feel is psychologically needed for success," he said. "Ownership gives you a thing that you can't do, whether you're talking about a lease or a treaty." When asked whether ownership was important to him personally or to the United States, he responded, "Psychologically it's important to me. Maybe another president would feel differently, but so far I've been right about everything."
When asked directly whether he would use military force to acquire Greenland, he initially responded, "I didn't say that. You said that." When the interviewer pressed, he said, "I'm not going to comment on that. I don't think it will be necessary."
"It's possible, if I needed it," Trump confirmed. "It might upset NATO," he added.
When asked whether the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro might lead Chinese President Xi Jinping or Russian President Vladimir Putin to adopt the same logic, he explained that Venezuela was a "threat." He dismissed claims that this could set a precedent for America's rivals. "You didn't have people pouring into China. You didn't have drugs flowing into China. "You didn't have drugs pouring into China. You didn't have all of the bad things that we've had. You didn't have the jails of Taiwan opened up and the people pouring into China... or Russia."
The interviewer noted that Xi views Taiwan as separatist and would argue it's a threat to China. "It's a source of pride for him," Trump said about the Chinese president's attitude toward the island. "That's up to him, what he's going to be doing. But, you know, I've expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don't think he'll do that. I hope he doesn't."
When asked if anything could limit his power on the world stage, Trump responded, "Yeah, there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It's the only thing that can stop me." The interviewer asked, "Not international law?" Trump replied, "I don't need international law. I'm not looking to hurt people."
When the interviewer pressed and asked whether his administration should obey international law, he responded, "It depends what your definition of international law is."
Trump said "only time will tell" how long the US will "administer" Venezuela, as he put it, adding it could be "much more" than a year. "We need to rebuild the country, and we're going to rebuild it in a very profitable way. We're going to use the oil, and we're going to take oil," he said. When it was pointed out that he spoke a lot about oil and money but not about democracy, and asked when Venezuela would hold free elections, he responded, "I love democracy. I'm a big fan."
