Utah Rep. Blake Moore, member of GOP leadership, breaks with Trump on seizing Greenland

WASHINGTON — A number of Republican lawmakers have rejected President Donald Trump's musings about seizing control of Greenland, arguing such a move would be "needlessly dangerous."

Utah Rep. Blake Moore, a member of House Republican leadership, came out against the president's annexation wishes in a bipartisan statement on Monday evening, calling the proposal unnecessary. The statement comes as talk of seizing Greenland has intensified in recent days after the seizure of Venezuela's president.

"If the message is that 'we need Greenland,' the truth is that we already have access to everything we could need from Greenland," Moore said along with Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., in a statement. "If we want to deploy more forces or build additional missile defense infrastructure in Greenland, Denmark has given us a green light to do so. Our ally has always accommodated us. Threatening to annex Greenland needlessly undermines that cooperation for no gain."

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., appeared to shut down the idea on Tuesday as he told reporters he doesn't "see military action being an option there."

"That, to me, is not something that anybody is contemplating seriously," he said.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who has occasionally pushed back against Trump on foreign affairs, rejected the idea of taking control of Greenland as a "really dumb idea."

The Nebraska Republican, who is retiring after this term, pointed to a joint statement from the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Denmark opposing any plans for annexation.

"It is embarrassing for the U.S. that this statement even has to be made," Bacon said in a post on X. "Denigrating our Allies serves no purpose and there is NO up side. It weakens us by diminishing trust between friends, and Russia and China love it. So… stop the stupid 'we want Greenland BS.'"

A handful of Republican senators similarly downplayed the suggestions, with some even questioning whether Trump was being serious.

"I don't know how much is bravado, how much is bombast," Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said of Trump's comments. "But militarily taking Greenland obviously I would not support."

"Do I think he's going to invade Greenland? No. The president likes to think out loud," Rep. John Kennedy, R-La., said separately. "Sometimes he does it just to aggravate you guys."

Trump has long mused about taking control of Greenland, with suggestions to do so dating back to his first term. The president revived that proposal to reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday night following U.S. strikes on Venezuela and the capturing of the country's president.

"We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security," Trump said.

Trump administration official Stephen Miller told Jake Tapper on CNN on Tuesday that it "has been the formal position of the U.S. government since the beginning of this administration, frankly, going back into the previous Trump administration, that Greenland should be part of the United States."

When Tapper pressed him about possible military action, Miller questioned Denmark's right to claim Greenland as a territory.

The administration's increasing aggressiveness on the issue prompted pushback from Denmark Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, who warned that an attack on Greenland by the U.S. would cause the end of NATO. Greenland has been controlled by Denmark since 1721 but has had home rule since 1979, giving local leaders authority over much of the territory's day-to-day affairs.

"If the United States were to choose to attack another NATO country, then everything would come to an end," she told local media. "The international community as we know it, democratic rules of the game, NATO, the world's strongest defensive alliance — all of that would collapse if one NATO country chose to attack another."

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