Hill Republicans Hope for an End to Trump’s Greenland Fixation

Members of Congress say they want a happy ending to the perpetual Greenland saga. But President Donald Trump keeps making clear that his only desired outcome is the one where the U.S. gains control over the territory.

“We need Greenland for national security, so we’re gonna see what happens,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Wednesday, a day marked by high-level meetings in the U.S. with officials from Greenland and Denmark. “If we don’t go in, Russia’s going to go in, China’s going to go in.”

Asked by reporters whether taking Greenland by force was a possibility, Trump said he would not discuss his options.

Trump’s insistence that the U.S. take over Greenland — an autonomous territory of Denmark — has left lawmakers scrambling to mollify a NATO ally.

Sen. Thom Tillis said he believes the president is “getting bad advice that won’t age well.”

“The thought of the United States taking the position that we would take Greenland — an independent territory within the Kingdom of Denmark — is absurd,” Tillis said in a floor speech Wednesday. “Somebody needs to tell the president that the people of Greenland, up until these current times, were actually very, very pro-American and very, very pro-American presidents.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell used a Wednesday floor speech to warn that the Trump administration’s fixation on Greenland meant that “the biggest questions” about the NATO alliance now “has to do with us, the United States.”

But some of the president’s allies think there could be a path on Greenland that leaves everyone happy.

Rep. Brian Mast, chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said he hopes “a good deal for all sides” comes out of the conversations between the U.S., Greenland and Denmark.

“We’ve had a beneficial relationship with Greenland for many, many years, just with what we have, by treaty, our ability to go in there and essentially conduct any operations that we want,” Mast said. “But we want to have more capability, more operations, more opportunity to create an ice road and conduct national security operations in the straits there. I mean, the capabilities there are numerous that we want.”

Rep. Young Kim, a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, said she was anxiously awaiting what would come out of the conversations between the administration and officials from Greenland and Denmark.

“But one thing I can say is Greenland is a strategic location for the United States, especially in the national interest, so if there’s going to be anybody who’s looking at partnership with Greenland, I would like that to be the United States,” Kim said. “We don’t want to cede that to our adversaries like Russia and China, for sure. So I’m waiting to see what comes out of it.”

Foreign ministers from Denmark and Greenland told reporters they had “cautious optimism” after their meetings Wednesday with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But they maintained in front of the Danish Embassy that U.S. control of Greenland was not a viable option and that there was a “fundamental disagreement” between the U.S. and Denmark.

“We made it very, very clear that this is not in the interest of the kingdom,” Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said.

Rubio and Vance are expected to brief Trump after their meeting with top officials from Greenland and Denmark, a senior White House official told NOTUS.

Asked if the president would settle for anything short of full control of Greenland — like an expansion of U.S. military personnel on the island — the official said “it’s clear the president’s mind is pretty made up.”

“But we’ll see what comes out of it,” they added.

The U.S. using military force to take Greenland would be an unprecedented move against a fellow NATO ally. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Jeanne Shaheen introduced war powers legislation to block the administration’s ability to conduct such a move without congressional approval.

“Our NATO alliances are what set the United States apart from our adversaries. We have friends and allies who are willing to stand firmly alongside us as the strongest line of defense to keep those who work to undermine peace and stability from making sweeping advances globally,” Murkowski said in a statement. “The mere notion that America would use our vast resources against our allies is deeply troubling and must be wholly rejected by Congress in statute.”

The Senate passed a procedural vote last week on a similar resolution related to Venezuela, with five Republicans joining forces with Democrats to advance the measure.

But with tensions high and meetings ongoing, one House Republican who has frequently annoyed the president offered a simple solution.

“I think we should quit acting like we’re going to attack them,” Rep. Thomas Massie told NOTUS.