“I have tremendous respect for both the people of Greenland and the people of Denmark, tremendous respect. But every NATO ally has an obligation to be able to defend their own territory. And the fact is, no nation, or group of nations, is in any position to be able to secure Greenland other than the United States. We’re a great power, much greater than people even understand. I think they found that out two weeks ago, in Venezuela.
We saw this in World War II, when Denmark fell to Germany after just six hours of fighting and was totally unable to defend either itself or Greenland. So, the United States was then compelled – we did it, we felt an obligation to do it – to send our own forces to hold the Greenland territory. And hold it we did, at great cost and expense. They didn’t have a chance of getting on it, and they tried. Denmark knows that.
We literally set up bases on Greenland for Denmark. We fought for Denmark. We weren’t fighting for anyone else. We were fighting to save it for Denmark. Big, beautiful piece of ice. It’s hard to call it land. It’s a big piece of ice. But we saved Greenland and successfully prevented our enemies from gaining a foothold in our hemisphere. So, we did it for ourselves also. And then after the war, which we won, we won it big – without us, right now, you’d all be speaking German and a little Japanese, perhaps.
After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that? But we did it, but we gave it back. But how ungrateful are they now? So now our country and the world face much greater risks than it did ever before, because of missiles, because of nuclear, because of weapons of warfare that I can’t even talk about.
Two weeks ago, they saw weapons that nobody ever heard of. They weren’t able to fire one shot at us. They said, ‘What happened?’ Everything was discombobulated. They said, ‘We’ve got them in our sights. Press the trigger.’ And nothing happened. No anti-aircraft missiles went up. There was one that went up about 30 feet and crashed down, right next to the people that sent it. They said, ‘What the hell is going on those?’ Those defensive systems were made by Russia and by China. So, they’re going to go back to the drawing boards, I guess.
Greenland is a vast, almost entirely uninhabited and undeveloped territory, sitting undefended in a key strategic location between the United States, Russia and China. That’s exactly where it is, right smack in the middle. Wasn’t important, nearly, when we gave it back. You know, when we gave it back, it wasn’t the same as it is now. It’s not important for any other reason. You know, everyone talks about the minerals, there’s so many places… There’s no rare earth. No such thing as rare earth. There’s rare processing, but there’s so much rare earth, then to get to this rare earth, you have to go through hundreds of feet of ice.
That’s not the reason we need it. We need it for strategic national security and international security. This enormous unsecured island is actually part of North America, on the northern frontier of the Western Hemisphere. That’s our territory. It is therefore a core national security interest of the United States of America, and in fact, it’s been our policy for hundreds of years to prevent outside threats from entering our hemisphere, and we’ve done it very successfully. We’ve never been stronger than we are now.
That’s why American presidents have sought to purchase Greenland for nearly two centuries. You know, for two centuries they’ve been trying to do it. They should have kept it after World War Two, but they had a different president. That’s all right, people think differently. Much more necessary now than it was at that time.
However, in 2019 Denmark said that they would spend over $200 million to strengthen Greenland’s defences. But as you know, they spent less than 1% of that amount, 1%. No sign of Denmark there. And I say that with great respect for Denmark, whose people I love, whose leaders are very good.
It’s the United States alone that can protect this giant mass of land, this giant piece of ice, develop it and improve it, and make it so that it’s good for Europe, and safe for Europe, and good for us. And that’s the reason I’m seeking immediate negotiations to, once again, discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States – just as we have acquired many other territories throughout our history. As many of the European nations have, they’ve acquired. There’s nothing wrong with it. Many of them. Some went in reverse, actually, if you look. Some had great, vast wealth, great, vast lands, all over the world. They went in reverse. They stuck back where they started. That happens too, but some grow.”
Please see full here: https://www.weforum.org/stories/2026/01/davos-2026-special-address-donald-trump-president-united-states-america/
