Is Mr. Trump just being bombastic again, floating a fanciful annexation plan for Greenland that he may know is a stretch?
Or is he serious?
Based on his comments in the past few weeks, Mr. Trump appears completely serious. Never mind that Denmark’s leadership has said the territory is not for sale, and its future must be determined by the local population.
“For purposes of national security and freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Mr. Trump wrote in late December in a social media post announcing his choice for ambassador to Denmark.
At a news conference on Tuesday, the president-elect took an even more surprising swerve: He refused to rule out using military force to get Greenland.
France and Germany are taking Mr. Trump seriously enough that they both issued statements on Wednesday defending Greenland’s territorial integrity and warning against the threat of any military action.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany said the principle of the inviolability of borders applied to every country, “no matter whether it’s a very small one or a very powerful one.” The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said that it was “obviously out of the question” to threaten another country’s “sovereign borders.”
“Do I think the United States will invade Greenland? The answer is no,” Mr. Barrot told France Inter radio. “Have we entered an era in which the rule of the strongest is returning? The answer is yes.”
