‘What Are We Doing Here?’ Trump’s Former Chief of Staff Explains What He’d Tell Administration About Taking Greenland

Mick Mulvaney, who served as President Donald Trump’s chief of staff in the first term, said Trump’s obsession with taking Greenland is ill-advised for several reasons.

The president has fixated on Greenland for much of the last year and claims the U.S. must acquire the Danish territory for “national security” purposes. In response, Denmark has held military exercises with other NATO countries on the island of 56,000. Trump has also said that taking Greenland is “what I feel is psychologically needed for success.”

On Sunday, PBS published a message Trump sent to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, and railed against Norway because it “decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize.” The prize is awarded annually by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, whose five members are appointed by the country’s parliament.

“I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now think about what is good and proper for the United States of America,” Trump wrote.

Mulvaney, a NewsNation contributor, appeared on the network, where Blake Burman asked, “What would you be telling [Trump] right now?”

“Uh, ‘Let’s think this through,'” he replied. “‘Let’s be careful.’ Look, I’m all in on the importance of Greenland, the military importance, the strategic minerals. I get all of that. But at what cost?… Mr. President, keep in mind, this is our largest creditor. Europe buys more of our debt than anybody else. And if they stop doing that, interest rates are gonna go up. That’s not really good for affordability.”

Mulvaney went on to note that the U.S. is already able to “do a lot of what we want to do already under the current agreement with the Danes. We could also probably cut a deal to get the strategic minerals out, the rare Earth staff, without having to own it.”

Burman then pointed to a remark from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said, “The president is looking at Greenland as a strategic asset for the United States. We’re not gonna outsource our hemispheric security to anyone else.”

“I have nothing but respect for him,” Mulvaney said of Bessent. “But if I were in the Oval Office having that discussion, my follow-up question is, ‘Ok, Scott, are we bombing Canada? I mean, what are we doing here? What are we trying to accomplish? We’re trying to defend the nation. There are ways to do it without alienating our closest allies in the whole world.'”

Mulvaney went on to say that Trump does not believe that U.S. alliances with European countries are particularly valuable.

“On the surface, I can see the arguments there,” Mulvaney added. “But when you start to break it down and look at what they do, what we do together economically, it just falls apart.”

Watch above via NewsNation.

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