President Donald Trump has renewed his threat of using military force to annex Greenland, saying in an NBC News interview he wouldn\u2019t rule it out to make the self-governing Danish territory a part of the United States. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s the latest in Trump\u2019s many comments about seizing control of the resource-rich island, which he insists the US needs for national security purposes. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t rule it out,\u201d he told NBC News\u2019 Kristen Welker in an interview that aired on Sunday. \u201cI don\u2019t say I\u2019m going to do it, but I don\u2019t rule out anything.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need Greenland very badly,\u201d Trump said. \u201cGreenland is a very small amount of people, which we\u2019ll take care of, and we\u2019ll cherish them, and all of that. But we need that for international security.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added that he doubted it would happen \u2013 but that the possibility is \u201ccertainly\u201d there. <\/p>\n
Trump has repeatedly expressed interest in buying the island, or the US taking it by force or economic coercion, even as NATO ally Denmark and Greenland have firmly rejected the idea. <\/p>\n
There are a few factors driving that interest; Greenland occupies a unique geopolitical position, sitting between the US and Europe, which could help repel any potential attack from Russia, experts have said. It also lies along a key shipping lane, and is part of the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom gap, a strategic maritime region. <\/p>\n
But experts also suspect Trump is eyeing other aspects of Greenland such as its trove of natural resources, which may become more accessible as climate change melts the territory\u2019s ice. These include oil and gas, and the rare earth metals in high demand for electric cars, wind turbines and military equipment. <\/p>\n
Since Trump began voicing plans for his presidency in December, his desire to annex Greenland has raised questions about the island\u2019s future security as the US, Russia and China vie for influence in the Arctic. <\/p>\n
But Greenland has pushed back strongly. <\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump says that the United States \u2018will get Greenland.\u2019 Let me be clear: The United States will not get it. We do not belong to anyone else. We decide our own future,\u201d the island\u2019s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in March after Trump again suggested the use of military force. <\/p>\n
Greenland\u2019s not the only sovereign territory Trump has his sights on; the president has repeatedly threatened to annex Canada and make it the US\u2019 \u201c51st state,\u201d souring relations between the two longtime allies. <\/p>\n
Last week, Canada\u2019s Liberal Party swept to victory in federal elections, with Prime Minister Mark Carney riding on a wave of anti-Trump sentiment and using his victory speech to declare Canada would \u201cnever\u201d yield to the United States. <\/p>\n
During the NBC interview on Sunday, Trump said it was \u201chighly unlikely\u201d he\u2019d use military force to annex Canada. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see it with Canada. I just don\u2019t see it, I have to be honest with you,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He added that he\u2019d talked on the phone with Carney after his election win, calling the Canadian leader a \u201cvery nice man.\u201d Trump had congratulated Carney, but they did not discuss the threat of annexation of Canada, he said. <\/p>\n
Carney is set to visit Trump in Washington on Tuesday. When asked whether the topic would come up during that visit, Trump responded: \u201cI\u2019ll always talk about that.\u201d <\/p>\n
If Canada was a state, \u201cit would be great,\u201d Trump added. \u201cIt would be a cherished state.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
President Donald Trump has renewed his threat of using military force to annex Greenland, saying in an NBC News interview he wouldn\u2019t rule it out to make the self-governing Danish territory a part of the United States. It\u2019s the latest in Trump\u2019s many comments about seizing control of the resource-rich island, which he insists the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":34703,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-34702","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfinancecore.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}