Trump Jr. visits Greenland after dad expressed desire to secure island for US
(CNN) — Donald Trump Jr. landed in Greenland on Tuesday, just weeks after his father, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, ruffled feathers by reiterating his desire to obtain control over the autonomous Danish territory.
“Greenland coming in hot… well, actually, really really cold!!!!” the president-elect’s eldest son posted on X on Tuesday, accompanied by a video seeming to capture a view of Greenland shot from a helicopter.
He later published to X two photos of himself in Greenland with the caption, “Greenland is beautiful!!!” In one of the images, Trump Jr. stands alongside Sergio Gor, who ran a Trump-aligned super PAC this election cycle, and right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
In a Truth Social post Monday, the president-elect had said his son would be traveling to the island along with “various representatives” to “visit some of the most magnificent areas and sights” and again expressed his interest in taking over the vast Arctic territory.
“I am hearing that the people of Greenland are ‘MAGA’,” he said in the post, referring to his slogan of “Make America Great Again.”
“Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our nation. We will protect it, and cherish it, from a very vicious outside world. Make Greenland Great Again!” he posted.
At a press conference Tuesday, the president-elect did not rule out using military or economic coercion to wrest control of Greenland or the Panama Canal, which he has also talked of acquiring.
“I can’t assure you – you’re talking about Panama and Greenland – no, I can’t assure you on either of those two, but I can say this: we need them for economic security,” said Trump, later adding that he would consider imposing tariffs on Denmark “at a very high level” if it resisted his pitch to acquire the territory.
CNN has reached out to Greenlandic and Danish authorities for comment on Trump’s press conference comments.
‘Greenland belongs to the people’
Before Trump’s press conference, Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede – who has recently stepped up a push for independence from Denmark – posted on Facebook on Tuesday, “Let me repeat – Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland. Our future and fight for independence is our business.”
“Every day is spent on working to become independent … we can cooperate,” he said, adding that while Denmark and the U.S. are “entitled to their opinions … we should not … (let) external pressures distract us from our path.”
On Monday, Denmark’s foreign ministry told CNN it had “noted” the trip but would not be commenting further as it was “not an official American visit.”
The ministry’s comment came after Reuters reported the island’s permanent secretary for foreign affairs Mininnguaq Kleist as saying the trip was a “private visit.” It also quoted a source as saying the trip was a one-day visit to shoot video footage for a podcast.
CNN has reached out to the Trump transition team for comment.
The U.S. president-elect in December made headlines when he resurfaced his desire to obtain the territory, calling it an “absolute necessity” for “purposes of national security and freedom throughout the world.”
He previously floated the idea of purchasing Greenland from Denmark in his first term as president, but the idea was shot down by the island’s government, which said at the time that it was “not for sale.”
When Trump resurfaced the issue in December, Egede responded that the island was “not for sale and will never be for sale” – comments that were echoed by the office of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who has previously called the idea “absurd.”
A member of Greenland’s parliament told CNN on Tuesday that Trump and his eldest son “are extremely welcome” in the autonomous Danish territory.
“Greenland’s economy needs to be diversified … So Donald Trump Junior, and even his father and other (members of the incoming) administration from the U.S. are extremely welcome here in Greenland as visitors … and also maybe more officially in the future,” Kuno Fencker – a spokesperson for the Siumut Party, Greenland’s second largest – told CNN’s Becky Anderson on Tuesday.
“Of course, we know about Donald Trump’s rhetoric,” Fencker continued. “We are, of course, aware of the geopolitical situation in the world, and we can see that with the Pituffik Space Base – which is a U.S. air base in the North Greenland – should be quite important for the American security and also Canadian and Greenland … So we understand that we need to protect this island and also our allies and North America,” he said.
“We are working on creating a sovereign country, which is Greenland,” Fencker added, saying that it should be Greenlanders’ decision “on what kind of state we would like to be and also who we should cooperate with.”
Trump is not the first American leader to have expressed an interest in controlling Greenland, which is home to Thule Air Base, the U.S. military’s northernmost base, located about 750 miles above the Arctic Circle and built in 1951.
Though President Harry Truman dodged questions about his pursuit of control in the region, the United States allegedly tried to buy Greenland in 1946, and in 1867, Secretary of State William Seward showed interest in purchasing the island.
According to Reuters, Greenland’s prime minister stepped up a push for independence from Denmark in his recent new year’s speech, saying it should break free from “the shackles of colonialism.”
Egede did not, however, mention the United States.
Additional reporting by Steve Contorno, Katherine Sullivan, Pamela Brown, Jim Acosta and Caroline Kelly