Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski ripped into the Trump administration on Wednesday after the White House said Donald Trump was discussing options to acquire Greenland.
The Alaska senator said she “hates” the idea of the U.S. taking the country by purchase or force and added, “And you know I don’t use the word hate very often.”
“I think that it’s very, very unsettling,” Murkowski told reporters, noting it was concerning to her as someone who has actually been to Greenland and has friends there.
GOP Senator Susan Collins also condemned talk of the U.S. taking over Greenland, as European allies fiercely reject the idea and Greenlanders have repeatedly said they do not want to be part of the U.S.
“I am not for the United States trying to take over Greenland either by military means or financial incentives,” Collins said.
She said she was not sure whether the Trump administration was being serious about it, but she was surprised every time it came up.
Senator Rand Paul said he has heard zero support within his caucus for military action in Greenland, though he was open to purchasing it if the U.S. went about it the right way, rather than through threats.
The White House said in a statement on Tuesday that the president and his team were “discussing a range of options to pursue this important foreign policy goal, and of course, utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal.”
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated that buying Greenland was being discussed and refused to rule out the use of military force.
“All options are always on the table for President Trump as he examines what’s in the best interests of the United States,” Leavitt said. “The president’s first option has always been diplomacy.”
Speaking to reporters on the Hill, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would be meeting with Danish officials next week. He said it was always the president’s intent to buy Greenland.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis yelled on the Senate floor on Wednesday that the talk of taking Greenland was “nonsense” and furiously blasted Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller for his comments about Greenland this week on CNN.
It came after he released a joint statement with Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen saying that “when Denmark and Greenland make it clear that Greenland is not for sale, the United States must honor its treaty obligations and respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark.”
Despite the White House on Tuesday refusing to rule out military force, House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday dismissed talk of it, arguing it was America First to focus on “strategic and national defense initiatives.”
“Does that mean we’re going to go send troops into Greenland and take it over? No. I mean they only have what 40, 50 thousand people there? This is not a thing,” Johnson said.
He insisted there was no intention of going to war with Greenland in response to a question over whether Congress would need to authorize military action. He would not answer a question about whether it was responsible of the White House to continue raising the possibility of military action there.
Other MAGA lawmakers have gone all in on backing a U.S. plan to buy Greenland.
Asked specifically if he had concerns about military action in the country, Senator Eric Schmitt said he absolutely supported “pursuing Greenland.”
He pushed back, saying “that’s not what anybody’s talking about” when it came to military action, but he backed the acquisition of the country.
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