Trump Floats Tariff for Countries Against US Acquisition of Greenland as Congressional Delegation Travels to Denmark

President Donald Trump has his eyes set on Greenland and may tariff countries opposed to the US acquisition of the island. But Congress is skeptical of Trump’s designs for the Denmark-owned island.

On Friday, Trump said at a White House event that he “may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security.”

After leaders from Greenland and Denmark visited Capitol Hill Thursday, Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., is leading a bipartisan weekend trip to Denmark. The urgency of the trip was spurred on by Trump’s insistence that the United States should be in control of Greenland, a semi-autonomous facet of the Danish Kingdom.

The Congressional delegation has attracted high-ranking members of the Senate, including Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

Durbin criticized Trump’s pressure campaign against Denmark on X: “President Trump’s continued threats toward Greenland are unnecessary and would only weaken our NATO alliance.”

“[The] United States Congress stands firm in our partnership, despite the President’s advances,” Durbin continued. 

Coons and Durbin will be joined by Democrat Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Peter Welch of Vermont, and Democrat Reps. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Gregory Meeks of New York, Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, Sara Jacobs of California, and Sarah McBride of Delaware. Republicans on the trip include Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C. 

Trump previously shared in a truth social post Wednesday that “the United States needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security.” Acquiring the territory from Denmark, the president claims, will increase NATO’s effectiveness in the region.  

Denmark announced it was increasing military presence in Greenland this week. NATO allies in Europe followed suit. France, Germany, the U.K., Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands have sent troops or promised to deploy them soon.  

The bipartisan bicameral delegation is taking the weekend trip to “highlight more than 200 years of friendship between the United States and the Kingdom of Denmark, including enduring national security ties and decades of economic cooperation,” as Coons described in a press release.  

According to Durbin the Congressional Delegation has planned to meet with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, an array of ministers, and attend a Parliamentarian Engagement at Christiansborg Palace with lawmakers from Denmark and Greenland.

The goals of these meetings are to “deepen this partnership in line with our shared principles of sovereignty and self-determination, and in the face of growing challenges around the world, especially bolstering Arctic security and promoting stronger trade relations between the two countries,” said Durbin.