‘I may a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland’: US Prez Trump

WASHINGTON: Untied States President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on countries opposing Washington’s plans to acquire Greenland for “national security” reasons. “I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security,” he said.

Trump has repeatedly asserted that Greenland is important to safeguard the US from Russia and China’s presence in the Arctic Ocean, and has demanded that the Kingdom of Denmark sell the self-governed territory.

However, Denmark and other NATO allies have refused to cede the territory to the US, with France, Germany and other European countries sending their troops to Greenland to help boost the security.

President Trump said Friday he may hike tariffs on countries that decline to “go along with” his administration’s efforts to acquire Greenland.

“I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security,” the president… pic.twitter.com/qoYI395Qi9

— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 16, 2026

Earlier, speaking to the reporters on the South Lawn, Trump emphasised the necessity of acquiring Greenland and also talked about the US’s military power, citing their recent operations in Venezuela and Iran.

“NATO has been dealing with us on Greenland. We need Greenland for national security very badly. If we don’t have it, we have a big hole in national security, especially when it comes to what we’re doing in terms of the Golden Dome and all of the other things,” he said.

“We have a lot of investments in the military. We have the strongest military in the world, and it’s only getting stronger. And you saw that with Venezuela. You saw that with the attack on Iran, with the knocking out of their nuclear capabilities”, he added.

Russia, which has maintained that it has no intention of acquiring Greenland, called out the West over the recent development for its “failure” to maintain a rule-based International order.

In a post on X, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia quoted spokesperson Maria Zakharova as saying, “Current tensions over Greenland sharply expose the failure of the West’s so-called ‘rules-based international order’. It is plainly visible that Copenhagen’s long-standing policy of unconditional subordination to the US is fundamentally flawed”.

On Wednesday, Denmark said it plans to increase its military presence in Greenland after the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers met with White House representatives in Washington DC, to discuss Trump’s intentions to take over the semiautonomous Danish territory to tap its mineral resources amid rising Russian and Chinese interest.

But the meeting could not budge US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J D Vance from their stance, as per Al Jazeera. (ANI)