Above photo: Reuters.
‘We want a piece of ice.’
The US president slammed NATO, complaining that Washington ‘gives so much’ and ‘gets so little’ in return.
US President Donald Trump said at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, that he will not “use force” to take Greenland, but called for immediate negotiations to hand it over to Washington.
US President Donald Trump says the US is asking for complete ownership of Greenland:
“We pay for NATO. We paid for many years, until I came along, in my opinion 100% of NATO, because they weren’t paying their bills. And all we’re asking for is to get Greenland, including right,… pic.twitter.com/L7EBQhj9HY
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) January 21, 2026
“We want a piece of ice for world protection,” he said. “And they won’t give it. We’ve never asked for anything else and we could have kept that piece of land and we didn’t, so they have a choice. You can say yes, and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no, and we will remember.”
He added that Washington could take Greenland by force, and it would be “unstoppable.”
“I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force. All the US is asking for is a place called Greenland. It’s the US alone that can protect this giant piece of land, this giant piece of ice, develop it and improve it,” he went on to say, stressing that the US is a “great power” and that Denmark is not.
“Certain places in Europe are not even recognizable anymore. And we can argue about it but there’s no argument … Without us, right now, you’d all be speaking German and little Japanese,” he went on to say, referencing World War II. “The US is keeping the whole world afloat.”
“We give so much, and we get so little in return,” he said about NATO.
The US only “gets death, destruction, and massive amounts of cash given to people who don’t appreciate what we do.”
Despite vowing not to use force, Trump responded, “You’ll find out” when asked how far he was willing to go to acquire Greenland, which belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark.
The US president has claimed that Russia or China will take Greenland if Washington does not, and that Denmark and the EU are incapable of protecting the territory from such an event.
Trump has announced plans to build a $175-billion “Golden Dome” anti-missile system – similar to Israel’s Iron Dome and aimed at protecting the US from threats. He claims acquiring Greenland is essential to this project.
US President Donald Trump tells “Bibi” to stop “taking credit for the Dome,” and that he will build a dome “like no other.” pic.twitter.com/VDCyP9G9De
— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) January 21, 2026
Last week, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen announced that talks with US officials at the White House did “little” to budge Washington’s position on annexing Greenland.
Rasmussen said the US remained fixed on acquiring the Arctic territory, despite Danish objections and warnings that such a move would violate sovereignty and Greenlanders’ right to self-determination.
“We did not manage to change the American position,” he told reporters after the meeting in Washington.
Earlier in January, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said, “It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the US needing to take over Greenland,” stressing that “the US has no right to annex any of the three countries in the Danish Kingdom.”
