Trump’s Greenland ambitions push NATO to the edge

President Donald Trump has never made a secret of his disdain for NATO. But his insistence that the United States take possession of Greenland from Denmark is poised to kill the alliance outright.

Trump’s insistence on obtaining Greenland has longtime U.S. allies “outraged,” and his “escalating aggression” is “thrusting NATO into crisis,” said Axios. Europe’s NATO members “must make it clear that the limit has been reached,” said German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil to reporters on Monday. His comment came after a letter from Trump to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre was made public, doubling down on the president’s demands. Global security is impossible “unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland,” Trump said.

That leaves NATO facing its “worst-ever crisis,” said CNN’s Stephen Collinson. World peace is threatened by the potential “fracturing of its most powerful military alliance.”

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Crisis could damage US security

“The western order we once knew is history,” said Timothy Garton Ash at The Guardian. That is true even if Trump gives up his threats to possibly take Greenland by force. His overall approach to geopolitics is “closer to that of Putin than it is to that of any U.S. president since 1945.” Europeans would do well not to worry about “existing structures and alliances” and instead “seek a wider range of partners, pragmatically, from issue to issue.” That’s because it is clear that Trump is “going to get more extreme and unpredictable.”

Trump’s “swaggering campaign” to obtain Greenland is creating a crisis that “could damage American security for decades,” said David Ignatius at The Washington Post. The Arctic is strategically important, but the pressure campaign is unnecessary: The U.S. “already has a military base in Pituffik” where it has permission to “add an unlimited number of troops.” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that the U.S. effort could wreck NATO. “Could the president really be so reckless that he would risk undoing America’s strongest alliance?”

The controversy has “added to existing strains” within NATO, said the National Review editorial board. Trump is right to want to enhance American security in the region. The White House approach is “crass, clumsy and counterproductive.” NATO has “served this country so well” for many years. It would be easy to take Greenland by force, but the cost “militarily, economically and politically” would be ruinous.

Can a deal be done?

There is still a chance a deal can be made that “leaves NATO and the transatlantic alliance intact” despite the rising tensions, said Daniel Fried at Atlantic Council. Pressure from both Congress and European allies will be needed, but American security in the Arctic will be “better achieved by working with Denmark and NATO allies, not against them.”

Just 17% of Americans support taking Greenland, said Reuters, and “substantial majorities” of both Democrats and Republicans say they oppose using the military to make it happen. Trump may be escalating tensions, but the “appetite for conflict” is low among American voters.