Trump Explains Why He Wants Greenland in ‘Right, Title and Ownership’ – But Vows ‘I Won’t Use Force’

President Donald Trump demanded “immediate negotiations to acquire Greenland” and explicitly vowed, for the first time, that he “won’t use force” as he made a lengthy pitch to those at the World Economic Forum in Davos as to why the US needs the territory as a matter of “national security and international security.”

As the president mused that the U.S. likely “won’t get anything” without the use of “excessive force” to seize the Arctic island, adding that the U.S. would be “unstoppable” if it did chose that path, while reassuring world leaders that he “won’t do that.”

“That’s probably the biggest statement I made, because people thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force, I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force,” he said.

Outlining his demand that the US acquire Greenland in “right, title and ownership” he argued “you need the ownership to defend it.”

“You can’t defend it on a lease. No. 1, legally, it’s not defensible that way. Totally. And No. 2, psychologically, who the hell wants to defend a license agreement or a lease?” he asked.

The president likened Greenland to “a large piece of ice in the middle of the ocean” but warned of its key strategic significance “if there is a war” with Russia or China.

“Much of the action will take place on that piece of the ice. Think of it, those missiles would be flying right over the center of that piece of ice. That’s all we want from Denmark. For national and international security, and to keep our very energetic and dangerous potential enemies at bay, is this land on which we’re going to build the greatest golden dome ever built,” he said.

Moments earlier, Trump claimed the US is uniquely capable of protecting Greenland, dismissing Denmark’s role in the semi-autonomous territory.

“It’s the US alone that can protect this giant mass of land, this giant piece of ice, develop it and improve it,” he said, adding there was “no sign” of Denmark on the island and accusing Copenhagen of underspending on defence.

Trump also advanced a new historical justification, asserting the US once effectively controlled Greenland during the Second World War after Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany.

Reflecting on his overnight operation to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro he compared it to World War II, when, he said “Denmark fell to Germany after just six hours of fighting and was totally unable to defend either itself or Greenland.”

He continued: “So the United States was then compelled, we did it, we felt an obligation to do it, to send our own forces to hold the Greenland territory and hold it at great cost and expense. [Germany] didn’t have a chance of getting on it. And they tried. Denmark knows that. We literally set up bases on Greenland for Denmark. We fought for Denmark, we weren’t fighting for anyone else, we were fighting to save it for Denmark – big, beautiful piece of ice. It’s hard to call it land, it’s a big piece of ice.”

He added: “But we saved Greenland and successfully prevented our enemies from gaining a foothold in our hemisphere. So we did it for ourselves also. And then after the war, which we won, we won it big – without us right now, you’d all be speaking German and a little Japanese, perhaps – after the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that? But we did it. But we gave it back. But how ungrateful are they now?”

In another departure from earlier arguments, Trump downplayed Greenland’s mineral wealth as the reason for his desire for the territory.

“Everyone talks about the minerals,” he said. “There’s so many places – there’s no rare earth, no such thing as rare earth, there’s rare processing, but there’s so much rare earth – and just to get to this rare earth you have to go through hundreds of feet of ice. That’s not the reason we need it.”

“We need it for strategic national security and international security,” he added. “It’s not important for any other reason.”

Watch above via Fox Business.

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