Winter Flare-Up: Trump’s Obsession with Greenland

Throughout January 2026, Europe was on edge: Donald Trump “wants Greenland” and says so with his characteristic bluntness. He not only insists on the need to “purchase” the island for the United States, but also hints at the possibility of military pressure if Denmark refuses.

At the end of January, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, following intensive negotiations mediated by Mark Rutte, Trump was persuaded to agree to a framework for a future deal on strategic cooperation regarding Greenland, instead of pursuing territorial claims. For now, most of the details of the arrangements remain unclear, including the specific mechanisms of security cooperation, the timeline for the agreement’s entry into force, and a possible U.S. veto over any economic activity by other countries on the island (primarily the extraction of rare earth minerals – another of Trump’s recurring fixations). Nevertheless, one fact remains: in early February, the issue of Greenland virtually disappeared from Trump’s rhetoric as abruptly as it had emerged.

The source of Trump’s “direct speech”

The most attentive observers followed this political series on the social network Truth Social – it is there that Trump, in his characteristic style, formulates his positions and tests messages.

After Donald Trump’s accounts were suspended on Twitter in 2021, he created his own platform (Truth Social) through his company, Trump Media & Technology Group. The absence of meaningful filtering or moderation has turned it into a space of presidential “direct speech”, where official statements, emotional reactions, and personal comments coexist in a single stream and often blur in status and tone.

As of early February 2026, Trump has approximately 11.6 million followers on Truth Social. Posts he shares typically receive 14,000-17,000 likes, while his original posts draw between 20,000 and 60,000; the number of ReTruths (reposts by other users) consistently reaches several thousand. This suggests that a significant portion of the audience observes these themes rather than actively endorsing them. The absence of a dislike function on Truth Social prevents users from registering negative reactions.

A “hot” January

In January 2026, Trump mentioned Greenland in his posts a record 26 times – more than during any other period in the platform’s existence.

The 2026 “Greenland season” began with a video of Trump speaking to journalists aboard his plane on January 5, in which the U.S. president stated his position in the most direct terms possible: “We need Greenland“. More precisely, he repeated the phrase four times, interspersing it with references to national security, the presence of Russian and Chinese vessels around the island, and Denmark’s inability to defend the territory, as well as a disparaging remark about “dog sleds”, which he suggested constituted Greenland’s entire defense. Trump would go on to repeat these messages multiple times in subsequent posts.

For example, on January 14, Trump wrote about plans to create a “Golden Dome” air and missile defense system, arguing that “the United States needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security”, that “NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the United States,” and that “If we don’t, Russia or China will; AND THEY ARE ALREADY DOING IT!” (capitalization preserved as in the original – ed.). 

That same day, Trump reposted on his social network an article from Just the News, a website owned by John Solomon, a Trump ally who previously worked at Fox News. The article, titled “Danish intel warned last year about Russian and Chinese military goals toward Greenland and Arctic”, argued that Russia and China have shown significant interest in Greenland and the broader region. Trump accompanied the repost with an emotional caption: “NATO: Tell Denmark to get them out of here, NOW! Two dogsleds won’t do it! Only the USA can!!!”

On January 17, Trump published a lengthy post in response to several European countries sending military personnel to Greenland for joint exercises. In the post, the U.S. president reiterated his familiar national security narrative and announced the imposition of an additional 10% tariff on all countries that chose to participate in the exercise. “This is a very dangerous situation for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Planet. These Countries, who are playing this very dangerous game, have put a level of risk in play that is not tenable or sustainable”, Trump wrote.

On January 20, Trump stated that, following a conversation with Mark Rutte, he had agreed to travel to the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he planned to hold meetings “with various parties” regarding Greenland.

On the same day, Trump posted screenshots of correspondence with Emmanuel Macron, in which Macron wrote, “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland”, and suggested focusing instead on Syria, Iran, and Ukraine.

Next came the American president’s preferred genre – AI-generated images. In one of them, world leaders sit in the Oval Office as Trump shows them a map of the Northern Hemisphere on which Canada and Greenland are draped in the U.S. flag. The original photograph was taken on August 18, 2025, when European leaders, together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, arrived in Washington for talks on U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine. The second image depicts Trump, alongside J. D. Vance and Marco Rubio, planting the U.S. flag in Greenland.

That same day, Trump published a post criticizing the United Kingdom for its decision to transfer the island of Diego Garcia to Mauritius. “The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired. Denmark and its European Allies have to DO THE RIGHT THING”, Trump wrote.

Later on January 20, Trump shared another private exchange, this time with Mark Rutte, who assured him that he was “committed to finding a way forward on Greenland”. The phrase can be interpreted in various ways. Evidently, Trump was hoping for Rutte’s full support.

Finally, on January 21, after meeting with Rutte, Trump wrote that they had established the “framework” for a future deal on Greenland and, in effect, the entire Arctic region, and that the tariffs on European countries were being lifted (the additional 10% announced in one of his earlier posts).

However, Trump’s posting about Greenland did not end there. He reposted a video from Fox News with a manipulative headline, “5 winners of Trump’s Greenland deal”. The purported winners included Trump, Denmark, Europe, the stock market, and Davos. This was followed by similar reposts of videos and articles that laud Trump.

On January 23, Trump published two posts. In one, he described his trip to Davos as successful. In the other, he criticized Canada, which he claimed opposed the “Golden Dome” that would be built over Greenland and would also protect Canada.

After that post, Trump’s account shifted to news about a shooting in Minneapolis and claims of “stolen elections”. For the time being, the U.S. president has not mentioned Greenland again.

Winter – a time to attend to the icy island

Interestingly, the previous surge of Trump’s interest in Greenland also occurred in winter. A month before the inauguration, on December 24, 2024, Trump announced the appointment of Kenneth Alan Howery as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark. In the announcement of the appointment, an entirely unexpected line appeared: “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity”.

On December 25, Trump posted an ironic Christmas greeting in which he criticized Panama and Canada, and unexpectedly added at the end: “Likewise, to the people of Greenland, which is needed by the United States for National Security purposes and, who want the U.S. to be there, and we will!”.

Trump frequently reposts media content that portrays the idea of purchasing Greenland in a positive light. He has shared a link to a 2019 Washington Post article in which the author examines Trump’s proposal to buy Greenland and and argues that “it actually makes a lot of strategic and economic sense”. Another example is a repost of an article from Breitbart News comparing the potential acquisition of Greenland to the purchase of Alaska.

In January 2025, Trump published 11 posts related to Greenland. The dominant theme of the month was coverage of Donald Trump Jr.’s trip to Greenland. Officially, the president’s son traveled to the island to meet with residents, not to promote the idea of purchasing Greenland. The principal provocation was the “Make America Great Again” slogan on the baseball caps worn by the entire team that arrived on the island. A recurring rhetorical device in President Donald Trump’s posts was the frequent use of the slogan “Make Greenland Great Again” (a modified version of his campaign motto “Make America Great Again”), consistently rendered in all caps. At the end of his son’s trip, Donald Trump thanked the people of Greenland for the warm welcome and promised that they would meet again SOON. Later, journalists reported that the individuals with whom Trump’s son posed for photographs did not even know who he was – they had been invited in from the street for a hot meal.

It is also noteworthy that Trump Jr. made his trip to Greenland in the company of Charlie Kirk, a far-right media figure and one of the most prominent voices of MAGA.

Subsequently, references to Greenland became increasingly infrequent, eventually declining to roughly one per month. When Vice President J. D. Vance visited the island with his wife in March 2025, Trump did not publish a single post on the subject – an omission that is striking given the volume of posts about his son’s visit.

However, in March and April of the previous year, several posts concerning Greenland did appear. In one of them, Trump portrayed the United States as Greenland’s security guarantor. He argued that since the United States has safeguarded the island’s security since World War II, it has a historical right to play an active role in the region. Trump also folded the island into his broader narrative about combating “fake media” and the system.

Over the following months, and until the renewed surge in January 2026, Donald Trump did not mention Greenland at all, even as he continued to post actively on Truth Social. 

It is evident that the Greenland issue is not closed for Trump. We may soon hear renewed talk of the “necessity” of the United States taking ownership of Greenland, since, in the president’s view, not only national security but the security of the entire world depends on it. For now, however, the matter appears to have entered a lull. How long it will last (several weeks or until next winter) remains to be seen.

In any case, the latest iteration of Trump’s “Greenland flare-up” has had a tangible impact on European politics. In the EU and the United Kingdom, the “rose-colored glasses” regarding strategic military partnership with the United States and the reliability of NATO have come off. Europe is increasingly moving toward strategic autonomy and this will be discussed on February 13-15 at the Munich Security Conference.