Original air date: January 25th 2026

This week, President Trump presses his foreign policy initiatives even further. At the World Economic Forum in Switzerland he announced he would not try to take Greenland by force.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

President Donald Trump: I don’t want to use force, I won’t use force.

Then after meeting with the head of NATO he announced a “framework of a future deal.” To those who think Trump’s pursuit of Greenland makes no sense that may be in part because they don’t know the history. Analysts agree Greenland’s geostrategic significance makes it critical to protection against potential threats from Russia and China in an increasingly accessible and contested Arctic region. Today, why Greenland, and why now.

Greenland isn’t a country— it’s Danish territory and the world’s largest island: 2.1 million mostly desolate, ice-covered square miles.

After Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio recently met with Greenland and Danish officials, Denmark firmly declared: Greenland’s not for sale. Several European countries responded by deploying a small number of troops to Greenland in a symbolic show of support against Trump’s talk of acquiring it.

President Trump: We need it for strategic national security and international security.

Donald Trump is far from the first American president to set his sights on Greenland. And the motivation is rooted in real national security concerns.

Alexander Gray: The underlying issue here is that if a foreign power were to gain access or control of Greenland, it would pose an existential threat to the United States and to the homeland.

Sharyl: Can you explain geographically why Greenland is that important to us?

Gray: Because of where it sits headed up toward the North Pole, it sits on some critical longitudinal lines for missiles. So missiles that are being fired intercontinentally, their trajectory is going to go over Greenland in most cases. That’s something we’re very concerned about.

Alexander Gray was Deputy Assistant to the President Trump and Chief of Staff of the White House National Security Council during Trump’s first term.

Gray: This is something that has a long history in US strategic thought. First time we tried to buy Greenland was in the 1860s. We’ve tried to buy it under presidents as diverse as Woodrow Wilson, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower. FDR actually sent troops to occupy Greenland in World War II because it was so essential to our security.

During World War II, Denmark’s ambassador to the U.S. signed an agreement for U.S. troops to protect Greenland from Nazi Germany, which was occupying Denmark at the time. Greenland’s rich cryolite mines and strategic location made it a global center point. Cryolite was essential for building lightweight aluminum warplanes. And Greenland was a key midpoint for refueling and stopover for U.S. and Allied forces. After World War II, U.S. troops were prepared to leave Greenland when the Soviet Union emerged as a new threat. Soviet bombers could fly polar routes over the Arctic and Greenland to strike North America.

Gray: We worried in the Cold War, there’s something called the Greenland Iceland UK gap. This is the area where Soviet submarines would go right up past the Greenland Coast to go off the East Coast of the United States and threaten the East Coast with nuclear missiles. We continue to worry that Russian subs could come down past the coast of Greenland, undetected, because the Danes don’t have the capability to detect them. And we have to have control of Greenland for anti-submarine warfare purposes.

In 1946, President Truman offered $100 million for Greenland, seeking a primary base for defense. Denmark refused. Then, in 1951, amid several Eastern European countries falling to Soviet-backed communist revolutions, the U.S. and Denmark signed a new agreement for the defense of Greenland. The U.S. built and operated Thule Air Base. Today, the base— now named Pituffik Space Base— is a critical U.S. lookout for ballistic missile early warning, space surveillance, satellite communications, and Arctic monitoring for North American defense purposes.

Gray: And my concern, and President Trump articulated this when I worked for him in the first term, he’s articulated this recently, is that China and Russia are increasingly interested in getting a foothold in Greenland. The Chinese are sending submarines all the way up past Greenland to the North Pole and we have no confidence, and we shouldn’t, that Denmark is capable of doing what needs to be done to keep Greenland safe for U.S. security purposes.

With Russia remilitarizing the Arctic and China eyeing resources and influence, Greenland’s importance has only grown.

Gray: There are a lot of different ways this could go. I think there are plenty of options we can offer to incentivize Greenlanders to want to be part of the United States. The short answer here is they’ve wanted independence from Denmark for 50 years and they’ve been on a path to get it. The current situation has kind of changed the trajectory. They will get independence eventually. The question is, when they get independence, it’s an island of 57,000 people. It’s the second least densely populated place on earth. When they get independence, they’re immediately going to be coerced and absorbed by the Russians and the Chinese, or they’re going to have the Americans waiting for them for our security and for their security and sovereignty. Which one do they want? Moscow and Beijing or Washington. And that’s the choice they’re going to have to decide. And I think we can make a great case for why they should choose us.

Watch the video here.