President Donald Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill are downplaying his threats to take over Greenland by force. To them it’s just the art of the deal -- hinting back to his popular 1987 book.
Republicans largely fell in line after Trump over the weekend ordered a strike that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro without congressional approval. Now, as Trump refuses to rule out military action to annex Greenland, some members of the GOP say his aggressive posturing is a bluff to secure a deal that gives the U.S. more influence over the Arctic island.
“He’s from New York, he’s one of the best negotiators and how he negotiates sometimes is everything is on the table,” Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who was Trump’s Secretary of the Interior in his first term, said in an interview with CNBC.
“I think [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio is correct in that he’s downplaying that we’re gonna land the Marines on Greenland,” Zinke said. “I’d be supportive of negotiating a deal with Denmark to make sure that it stays influenced in the West.”
Trump has long coveted Greenland, a self-governing island territory of NATO ally Denmark. He has argued U.S. influence over the island is critical to national security for deterring Russian and Chinese aggression. The president has doubled down on his efforts to make the island part of the U.S. after the Venezuela raid that captured Maduro and hauled him to New York to face criminal drug charges.
