President Donald Trump renewed calls for the U.S. to acquire Greenland during an Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Thursday under questioning by Pennsylvania-based radio show host and publisher of The Virginia Star John Fredericks.
Fredericks, who is once again officially included in the White House pool rotation after having the privilege revoked by former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki under the previous administration, asked Trump, “Mr. President, what is your vision for the potential annexation of Greenland?”
“We really need Greenland for national security.”
President @realDonaldTrump addresses whether or not there’s a pathway for the annexation of Greenland to become part of the United States. @POTUS #ovaloffice #NATO pic.twitter.com/jnGs9Ox7T4
— John Fredericks (@jfradioshow) March 13, 2025
The president said he thinks the U.S. acquisition of the island “will happen” before turning to Rutte and arguing that NATO may “need to get involved” as the U.S. needs Greenland for “international security.”
“We need that for international security…We have a lot of our favorite players cruising around the coast and we have to be careful,” Trump said.
Rutte said that while he doesn’t “want to drag NATO” in U.S. affairs acquiring Greenland, he ultimately agreed that the area needs to “stays safe” as China and Russia ramp up activity in the region.
Upon further questioning from Fredericks, Trump went on to announce that the U.S. is in the process of ordering 48 icebreakers to expand its arctic fleet, noting how Russia currently operates around 40 icebreakers.
“That whole area is becoming very important…for a lot of reasons: the routes are very direct to Asia, to Russia, and you have ships all over the place and we have to have protection, so we’re going to have to make a deal on that,” Trump added.
Noting how Greenland relies on Denmark for defense, Trump went on to suggest that Denmark may not “have rights to” the island.
“Denmark’s very far away and really has nothing to do with what happens. A boat landed there 200 years ago or something and they say they have rights to [Greenland]. I don’t know if that’s true. I don’t think it is, actually,” Trump said.
“We really need Greenland for national security. It’s very important. We have a couple of bases on Greenland already and we have quite a few soldiers and maybe you’ll see more and more soldiers go there. I don’t know,” Trump added.
Shortly after the conclusion of the Oval Office press avail, President Trump’s media team dubbed @RapidResponse47 posted the lively exchange on X.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
