The White House has struck a deal that gives “permanent control over security” in Greenland to the United States, President Donald Trump said Friday, declaring victory in his long-running desire to increase U.S. sway over the Arctic territory even though the deal fell far short of actual conquest.
The president said he had agreed with Danish and Greenlandic leaders that Washington would have wide-ranging powers to secure and defend Greenland, which is Danish territory, “completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns.”
In a post on Truth Social, he said that “at my direction, we worked with representatives of Denmark and Greenland to guarantee that the United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland, and the United States of America.”
He said that there would be no cost to the United States, without explaining how.
Trump is expected to meet the leaders of Denmark and Greenland next week in New York at the United Nations General Assembly, the annual gathering of world leaders, where they plan to sign the deal, which will then need to be ratified by their parliaments. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Congress would also need to approve the deal, which Trump did not formally call a treaty.
In a statement with Greenlandic leaders, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said: “I am pleased that there is the prospect of a good agreement for Greenland, the Kingdom of Denmark and the United States.”
The statement described the deal as “an agreement that strengthens our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic region and is therefore also good for NATO and Europe. And an agreement that at the same time recognizes the Kingdom’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and the Greenlandic people’s right to self-determination.”
The outline of the deal appeared to be a compromise that gave Trump a win to boast about ahead of the midterm elections while also allaying Danish, Greenlandic and European concerns that the United States was seeking formally to annex Greenland as its territory.
Trump has long sought to take possession of Greenland, declaring concern about Chinese and Russian ambitions there and also saying he wanted to control the territory’s mineral resources. The idea stretches back to his first term, when a New York friend, cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, told the president about Greenland’s extensive mineral wealth, much of which is trapped under ice and difficult to develop.
His efforts in January to accelerate a U.S. takeover spurred fears in Europe that the United States could attempt to take the island by force — an unprecedented effort by NATO’s most powerful member to invade another NATO member’s territory.
Trump’s January demands set off weeks of crisis. Britain, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden all deployed troops to the territory for military exercises that they denied were directly tied to Washington’s threats but were clearly intended to serve as a tripwire. Anxious European diplomats raced around Washington, fretting that they were on the brink of war with the United States.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte met with Trump and other leaders in Davos, Switzerland, later that month and calmed relations. But tensions flared again in July when Trump loudly declared that he still wanted to take control of the Arctic territory.
Trump told reporters in Ankara that Greenland “should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark,” and said that Europe’s refusal to allow Washington to take it over is “what hurt my relationship with NATO.”
At the summit, Frederiksen and Trump found themselves walking close to each other as leaders left a stage where they took the group photo that marks many international gatherings.
“Donald, you’re not going to get Greenland,” Frederiksen told Trump, walking up to him to deliver the message, according to three officials familiar with the exchange. The officials, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly about sensitive diplomatic conversations.
“Okay, we’ll see,” Trump said in response.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the exchange.
Despite those public flare-ups, behind the scenes, a small circle of senior U.S. and Danish officials worked deliberately under the radar to reach an agreement while preventing leaders on both sides from derailing their talks by talking about the hot-button issue publicly.
Trump, in particular, had a habit of inflaming the topic whenever he was asked about it publicly. He would repeat his avowed desire to “have” the territory whenever a reporter brought it up with him — and Frederiksen, who faced elections in March that were followed by months of painful coalition negotiations — often felt the need to respond tit-for-tat.
The agreement they worked out says that only NATO members can set up military bases in Greenland and that only NATO and E.U. members can make sensitive investments there. The deal is intended to stand even if Greenland breaks from Denmark — but it would not offer the United States a veto over Greenlandic decisions, as Trump suggested, according to people knowledgeable about the discussions which led up to Friday’s announcement. .
The deal was crafted to enable Trump to declare victory while still satisfying Denmark and Greenland’s concerns that they maintain sovereignty over the territory, the people said.
Trump’s announcement of the agreement was met with gloating by some of his senior allies.
“ITS HAPPENING”, wrote Katie Miller on X, posting an image of Greenland covered by the stars and stripes of the U.S. flag. Miller is married to Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy.
But people familiar with the deal said those claims were far overstated.
The text of the agreement was not published on Friday. Trump said that no U.S. adversary “can EVER have a base in Greenland” or invest in the territory “without our express written approval.” And he said that deal was “Infinite Life,” without an end.
The United States intends to place “a large Military presence” in Greenland, and would immediately begin developing plans to do so, Trump said. The U.S. has had a significant military presence in Greenland continuously since World War II, and it signed a 1951 treaty with Denmark that gives Washington wide latitude to maintain bases on the territory. That treaty has no end date.
The leaders of both Greenland and Denmark were more cautious than Trump on Friday about the finality of the agreement, saying in their joint statement that “once the agreement has been signed, it will have to go through the necessary parliamentary procedures before entering into force.”
While Trump has long expressed a broad desire to possess the territory, lower-level U.S. officials charged with putting a policy framework onto Trump’s aims have said that one U.S. concern was that if Greenland ever declared independence from Denmark, agreements about the U.S. military presence there could be canceled.
“Greenland will forever be part of the strategic defense area of North America and exclude any adversary from it,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. “This deal permanently and completely addresses our national security concerns in Greenland.”
The possibility of Greenlandic independence is one reason the president has been focused on the permanence of any deal. But any irreversible agreement that involves security and the military bases of one country on another’s territory also raises questions about sovereignty, Danish and Greenlandic officials have said.
Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said that “the agreement recognizes Greenland’s interests and our place in international cooperation. It is to the benefit of us all.”
Some analysts questioned whether the payoff of the deal was worth the cost.
“What will the response of Greenlanders be? Washington has not made the best impression and a deal that allows for expanded U.S. presence without the ability of Greenlanders to weigh in. As it’s been characterized in the American media so far, is unlikely to be popular,” said Imran Bayoumi, a former Defense Department official who has worked on Greenland issues at the Atlantic Council, a think tank.
“There’s also a question if this was worth the strain in the transatlantic relationship,” he said. “U.S.-Denmark ties have worsened, as have broader U.S.-NATO ties. A deal can allow both sides to move forward, but won’t necessarily repair the relationship.”
Adam Taylor contributed to this report.
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