Overview
- At a private Alfalfa Club dinner, President Donald Trump joked about making Canada the 51st U.S. state, Greenland the 52nd and Venezuela the 53rd, according to reports citing the Washington Post.
- Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told Greenland’s parliament that Washington has ruled out a military takeover but still seeks to link and control the island, calling the stance unacceptable.
- Greenland, Denmark and the United States have opened senior-level meetings to examine U.S. concerns, with Copenhagen and Nuuk stressing that the island’s sovereignty is not under negotiation.
- Denmark has moved to expand its military presence in Greenland, and several NATO partners signaled cooperation to bolster Arctic security in response to the renewed rhetoric.
- Canadian media report that the Canadian Armed Forces modeled a hypothetical U.S. assault as a precaution, though an attack is viewed as unlikely by those sources.