'I think it will happen': Trump says US may acquire Greenland, NATO head agrees on need for Arctic security

President Donald Trump met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office on Thursday where the two were set to discuss the war in Ukraine. Trump was asked about his proposed plans to acquire the Danish Arctic island of Greenland, which Trump has said is essential for national security. Denmark has said the island is not for sale.

"What is your vision for a potential annexation of Greenland?" Trump was asked.

"Well I think it will happen," Trump said, "and I'm just thinking I didn't give it much thought before, but I'm sitting with a man that could be very instrumental." He turned to Rutte, saying "y'know Mark, we need that for international security, not just for security, international. We have a lot of our favorite players cruising around the coast," Trump joked, referring to China and Russia, "and we have to be careful."

"It's an issue of the high north," Rutte said, "so the Arctic, so what you did, when it comes to Greenland, joining the US, I would leave that outside this discussion, because I don't want to drag NATO in that, but when it comes to the high north and the Arctic you are totally right. We know the Chinese are using these routes, we know that the Russia are the army, we know that we have lack of ice breakers. So the fact that the seven—outside Russia—the seven Arctic countries, working together on this under US leadership is very important to make sure that that region, that part of the world stays safe. We know things are changing there, we have to be there."

Trump has suggested during his second term, as well as during his first, that the territory of Greenland, currently under control of the Denmark, would be better off under US control, both for America and for the citizens of that island. During a recent election on the island, Greenland's nationalist parties made substantial gains and there has been talk of seeking independence from Denmark. Shortly after Trump took office, his son Donald Trump Jr. and pundit Charlie Kirk took a trip to Greenland to take the proverbial temperature of the nation.