President Donald Trump on March 13 expressed optimism about the United States acquiring Greenland, highlighting the effort as vital to geopolitical strategy and suggesting that the United States could take possession of the autonomous territory.
The president made the remarks as he hosted NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House to negotiate trade and security agreements, among other issues.
“I think it will happen. I’m sitting with a man that could be very instrumental,” Trump said during the Oval Office meeting while gesturing toward Rutte. “We need that for international security.”
Rutte acknowledged a need to maintain security in the region, noting the presence of Chinese ships in the area, and welcomed U.S. leadership, but he sought to distance NATO from Greenland annexation talks.
“I don’t want to direct NATO in that, but ... it’s very important to make sure that the region ... stays safe,” Rutte said. “We know things are changing there, and we have to be there.”
General elections held on March 11 in Greenland proved favorable, from Trump’s perspective, as the center-right Democrat Party, led by Jens Frederik Nielsen, secured a slim plurality of parliamentary seats.
“The person that did the best is a very good person as far as we’re concerned,” the president said. “And so we'll be talking about it, and it’s very important.”
Trump and Rutte also discussed the war in Ukraine and a range of other global security issues.
“At this moment, we have people talking in Russia, we have representatives over there,” Trump said.
“We’re getting words of things going okay in Russia, and it doesn’t mean anything until we hear what the final outcome is, but they have very serious discussions going on right now with President [Vladimir] Putin and others, and hopefully they all want to end this nightmare.”
During his three-day trip, Rutte is also scheduled to meet with senior administration officials and members of Congress.
Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO allies for not contributing enough to the alliance. Since his first term, he warned that the United States might withhold support if other members failed to meet their financial commitments.
“If you’re not going to pay, we’re not going to defend,” Trump told reporters last week when asked about a potential change in U.S. policy toward NATO. “I said that seven years ago. And because of that, they paid hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Trump called it a common-sense approach, but he noted, “I got into a lot of heat when I said that.”
He also questioned NATO’s willingness and capability to defend the United States in times of crisis.
“The biggest problem I have with NATO,” Trump said, “They’re friends of mine, but if the United States was in trouble, and we called them ... do you think they’re going to come and protect us? They’re supposed to. I’m not so sure.”
In response to Trump’s remarks, French President Emmanuel Macron expressed France’s commitment to the alliance.
“We are loyal and faithful allies,” Macron said, expressing “respect and friendship” toward U.S. leaders.
“I think we’re entitled to expect the same.”
In 2014, NATO set a target for all members to spend at least 2 percent of their national gross domestic product (GDP) on defense spending by 2024.
During his virtual address to the World Economic Forum on Jan. 23, Trump urged NATO members to boost defense spending to 5 percent of their GDP.
On Jan. 23, Rutte said that Trump is right to request that alliance members allocate at least 5 percent of their GDP to defense.
“If Ukraine loses, then to restore the deterrence of the rest of NATO again, it will be a much, much higher price than what we are contemplating at this moment in terms of ramping up our spending and ramping up our industrial production,” Rutte said at a side event at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Jan. 23.
“It will not be billions extra, it will be trillions extra.”
Rutte succeeded Jens Stoltenberg as the head of the Atlantic Alliance in October 2024.
He served as prime minister of the Netherlands for the previous 14 years and met with Trump on multiple occasions during the president’s first term.
The two met most recently at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Nov. 22, 2024, to discuss a range of global security issues facing the alliance.
Rutte last visited Trump at the White House in 2018 for bilateral discussions related to investments, job creation, and security.
During an Oval Office gathering at the time, the two leaders disagreed on trade deals between the European Union and the United States, after the president suggested that the deal’s prospective failure was a positive outcome.
Trump said on March 13 that threats he made during his first term to stop sending aid if NATO member countries didn’t pay their fair share pushed allies to increase their defense spending.
“NATO became much stronger because of my actions,” the president said. “The money started coming in.”
