UK, Germany, France Push New Plan To Appease Trump On Greenland
President Trump's Friday's remarks to reporters Friday made clear he is willing to take control of Greenland - even if it's the "hard way" - and this sent the Europeans scrambling over the weekend to come up with plans or strategies for quickly de-escalating inter-NATO tensions.
"I'm not talking about money for Greenland yet. I might talk about that. But right now we are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not," the President had said, adding: "I would like to make a deal. You know, the easy way. But if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way."
In the wake of this, NATO member Denmark responded firmly in the face of the US threat to its colony. Such a scenario as a US military move on Greenland would be the collapse of NATO, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has made clear. Among the remarks from last week, Frederiksen said, "If the United States were to choose to attack another NATO country, then everything would come to an end."
"The international community as we know it, democratic rules of the game, NATO, the world’s strongest defensive alliance – all of that would collapse if one NATO country chose to attack another," the Danish PM added. But he missed the irony in the fact that country after country that refused to play by the so-called "democratic rules of the game" got bombed or overthrown by NATO and the West - with Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Iran and others lying in ruins and societal fragmentation.
Warner: "We've had American intervention in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Nigeria, Venezuela, maybe Greenland where he would blow up NATO. Did you see the Brits and Germans are putting troops in Greenland because they want to send a message. How is this leading to price stability,… pic.twitter.com/kLF5eWENJL
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 12, 2026
But now, as Bloomberg reports, European countries are seeking to seize on Trump's talking points about Greenland being strategically crucial for Arctic security, as rival powers like Russia and China allegedly seek to move in.
"A group of European countries, led by the U.K. and Germany, is discussing plans for a military presence in Greenland to show U.S. President Donald Trump that the continent is serious about Arctic security and to try to tamp down American threats to take over the self-ruling Danish territory," reports Bloomberg.
So this seems all about creating a fresh NATO joint mission to appease Trump, soften the rhetoric, and take away one of his main geostrategic justifications for a Greenland takeover.
Bloomberg continues, "Germany will propose setting up a joint NATO mission to protect the Arctic region, according to people familiar with the plans."
This includes backing from Britain, with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer having separately called on allied nations to strengthen their security footprint in the far north. Pre-planning discussions have been held with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The topic is likely to be broached when German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul meets with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week.
"Because security in the Arctic is becoming increasingly important, I also want to discuss on my trip how we can best bear this responsibility in NATO — in view of old and new rivalries in the region by Russia and China — together," Wadephul said in a statement Sunday. "We want to discuss this together in NATO."
It will be interesting to see whether the White House pursues this as an off-ramp, dropping the Greenland project, or whether Trump will read this as a ploy to co-opt forward momentum.
Selling a counter-plan based on running with the exaggerated threat and lie...
The US will defend Greenland from the US?
— Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) January 12, 2026
- Trump said that Russian and Chinese ships are around Greenland as an excuse for annexation. The Europeans know this is not true, but hope that Trump will believe his own lie to elevate the relevance of NATO? pic.twitter.com/XHr7pqSro6
Trump has said on outright seizing it, "If we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland. And we’re not going to have Russia or China as a neighbor." But there have also been other creative solutions offered - such as paying each Greenlander something like $1 million in exchange for US sovereignty over the mass which could be the size of a continent.
Currently, each citizen of Greenland is a full citizen of Denmark and of the European Union, and so many locals might not want to swap this out for being an American. However, many would likely be very attracted to some kind of huge single sum payout.