Republican dissent as key figures warn Trump against Greenland pursuit | Republicans
Donald Trump’s renewed interest in seizing control of Greenland has become a matter of sharp opposition among Republicans in Congress; Several allies have spoken out against the idea in recent days after the president refocused his attention following the U.S. raid that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Republicans in Congress are generally loathe to openly disagree with the president, who has repeatedly called for the removal of his party’s opponents. But in the middle voting This shows that the overwhelming majority of Americans are against taking control of the island, and Danish warnings that an invasion would mean the end of NATO, while some Congressional Republicans have issued strong warnings against pursuing the issue.
“The idea that the United States would take the position of seizing Greenland, an independent territory from the Kingdom of Denmark, is absurd,” North Carolina senator Thom Tillis said in his speech on the Senate chamber Wednesday. “Someone needs to tell the president that the people of Greenland, up until now, were actually very, very pro-American and very, very pro-American presence.”
Nebraska congressman Don Bacon told Omaha World-Herald: “If he continues to make threats, I think that will be the end of his presidency. And he needs to know that Republicans are not going to tolerate this and he’s going to have to back down. He hates being told no, but I think Republicans need to stand firm in this situation.”
Former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell compared the possibility of the US seizing Greenland to Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021; This has become an unpopular moment in the Democratic presidency.
“A continuation of this provocation would be even more disastrous for the president’s legacy than withdrawal from Afghanistan was for its predecessor,” McConnell said, warning that it would mean “burning the hard-earned trust of loyal allies in exchange for no meaningful change in U.S. access to the Arctic.”
Trump has displayed an expansionist streak in his second term as president, openly declaring that he wants the United States to annex Canada, the Panama Canal, and Greenland, even though they are part of NATO ally Denmark.
The issue appeared to fall by the wayside in recent months as Trump grappled with falling approval ratings over public concerns about the cost of living and his militarized immigration enforcement campaign, but he began to focus again on Greenland after the successful crackdown in Venezuela, where Maduro is being tried in a New York court.
European countries reacted with alarm to Trump’s comments, and troops from France, Germany, Britain, Norway and Sweden arrived in Greenland this week in a show of political support. One country said it doubled as a scoping mission for what a permanent deployment in the region would look like.
The foreign ministers of Greenland and Denmark met with Trump, vice president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio on Wednesday, but the meeting did not change the US president’s demands. Trump later said the United States still “needs” Greenland for national security reasons, and on Friday the president warned he could impose tariffs on countries that oppose his campaign.
Even on foreign policy issues, Trump kept the vast majority of Republicans in line. After the Senate last week advanced a war powers resolution requiring Congress to be notified before attacking Venezuela again, the president said the five Republicans who joined Democrats to support the measure “should never be elected to office again.” On Wednesday, two GOP senators changed their votes to override the resolution this week.
Tillis, who left Trump because of the domestic policy bill he signed, is not considering re-election this year along with Bacon and McConnell. Other Republicans who oppose Trump’s Greenland campaign are among the few who frequently disagree with the president.
“This senator from Alaska doesn’t think it’s a good idea, and I want to improve the relationship we have,” centrist Lisa Murkowski said Friday during a bipartisan congressional delegation’s visit to Copenhagen. “Greenland needs to be seen as our ally, not as an asset.”
There are signs that Republicans close to the president are also uneasy about the campaign, especially the threat it poses to NATO.
“As head of the US delegation [Nato parliamentary assembly] “I cannot overstate the importance of our transatlantic relations,” Ohio congressman Mike Turner wrote to X. “We must respect the sovereignty of the people of Denmark and Greenland.”
Inside an interview Speaking to CNN last week, Louisiana senator John Kennedy said: “Invading Greenland and attacking the sovereignty of a NATO country would be weapons-level stupidity. President Trump is not weapons-level stupidity.”
