Trump renews Greenland demand at NATO summit

Donald Trump revived his demand for the United States to take control of Greenland and threatened to pull American forces from Europe as NATO leaders gathered in Ankara, turning a summit meant to showcase alliance unity into another test of transatlantic ties.

The US president said he was “very upset with NATO” and linked his frustration to European resistance over Greenland and to allies’ refusal to support US operations during the US-Israel war on Iran.

“I’m not happy with NATO because of what they did with Greenland, and I’m not happy with NATO because of the fact that they didn’t want to help us with the number one state sponsor of terror, that’s Iran,” Trump told reporters as he met alliance chief Mark Rutte, according to Al Jazeera.

Trump singled out Denmark, a NATO member, over Greenland, saying the Arctic territory “should be controlled by the US, not by Denmark.” Greenland is part of Denmark, and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said it is “not for sale.”

“Greenland is a big problem for us,” Trump said. “We need it for protection of the world, not just the United States.” He added that Denmark “doesn’t spend money to really help Greenland” and said the island was surrounded by Chinese and Russian ships.

Rachel Reeves, the UK chancellor, rejected Trump’s position. “The future of Greenland is up to the people of Greenland and of Denmark, and not up to the US president,” she told reporters. European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said decisions on Greenland’s future were “for Greenlanders and Danes.” Rutte said the US and Denmark would continue talks on a possible increase in the US footprint on the island.

Trump also warned that the US could remove its troops from Europe. “We don’t have to spend any money; we could remove all of our soldiers out of Europe,” he said, adding that Europe had changed and leaders “better be careful with immigration and energy.”

The comments came as European allies sought to avoid a public clash with Trump over defence spending. Trump has repeatedly accused NATO members of relying too heavily on Washington and is expected to press countries that have not moved quickly enough toward spending 3.5% of GDP on defence by 2035.

“Why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars and they’re not there for us? We’ve always been there for them,” he said. NATO’s mutual defence clause has been triggered only once, after the September 11 attacks, when allies joined US forces in Afghanistan.

Trump also criticized allies over Iran. “We weren’t treated well because we did something in Iran,” he said. Referring to the United Kingdom, he suggested Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision not to join the war had contributed to his downfall, though The Guardian reported that Starmer’s stance had been popular with the British public. “He said: ‘No, we’ll help after the war is over.’ I said: ‘We don’t need that kind of help,’” Trump said.

Spain drew Trump’s sharpest trade threat. He called the country a “terrible partner in NATO” and said, “We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain any more,” asking Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to “cut it off.” Spain said in March that US forces could not use joint military bases on Spanish territory for operations against Iran and closed its airspace to US planes involved in the war.

The office of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said it was treating Trump’s remarks as “business as usual” and did not intend to change what it called “excellent” relations with Washington. It said Spain had a trade deficit with the US and noted that EU members cannot be singled out on trade because they are part of the bloc’s customs and trade union. Gill said the EU expected Washington to honour its trade commitments with the 27-member bloc.

European governments are trying to show they are increasing their own military capabilities. The UK will lead a £37bn European project with countries including France, Germany and the Baltic states to develop a long-range missile that could strike targets 200 to 1,200 miles away, including deep behind Russian lines in Ukraine. Reeves also suggested an off-balance-sheet multilateral defence financing mechanism could be merged with Canada’s Defence, Security and Resilience Bank initiative, which supporters say could provide access to £86bn in lending capacity for a £900m UK subscription.