Mitch McConnell Eviscerates Trump’s Greenland Ambitions in Scathing Floor Speech: Would Be an ‘Unprecedented Act of Strategic Self-Harm’

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered a scathing critique of President Donald Trump’s threats to take Greenland in a Senate floor speech Wednesday, warning him that it would be an “unprecedented act of self-harm” and “more disastrous” for his legacy than the withdrawal from Afghanistan during President Joe Biden’s term.

Trump’s rhetoric directed at the autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark has escalated as his second term has progressed, including social media posts declaring that acquiring Greenland was “vital” for the U.S. and “[a]nything less that that is unacceptable.”

Officials from Greenland, Denmark, and multiple NATO countries have loudly rejected Trump’s demands for Greenland, citing its long history with Denmark, the lack of interest by Greenlanders in joining the U.S., and its status as a NATO member.

Nonetheless, Trump has been undeterred, even publicly floating the idea of taking military action — despite how overwhelmingly unpopular that would be with the American public.

A recent poll found only 17% of Americans who supported taking Greenland, and a measly 4% supported using military force to do so. Even among Republicans, only 8% were in favor of a military invasion of Greenland.

This week, Canada, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, and other NATO allies are deploying troops to Greenland as a show of solidarity against the American saber-rattling.

McConnell, who served in the Senate since 1985 and was the GOP Leader for years before passing the torch to Sen. John Thune (R-SD) in 2024, spoke for over 25 minutes on the Senate floor Wednesday (transcript available here) on the topic of Greenland, digging deep into U.S. and NATO history to make his argument, and offering grim predictions of how “disastrous” it would be to continue to pursue this.

McConnell began by discussing the devastation caused by World War II — tens of millions dead, tens of millions more displaced, food shortages, hyperinflation — and how “America’s leaders understood that our interests and those of our European allies were linked, whether we liked it or not.”

“American security and stability depended on European security and stability,” he continued. “Not least because conflict with Nazi Germany was succeeded immediately by the threat of conflict with the Soviet Union. Millions in Eastern Europe had gone from living under Nazi tyranny to living under Soviet tyranny.”

In the late 1940s, polls showed that “the American people understood the stakes,” said McConnell, properly viewed Russia as a threat, and supported a “mutual defense pact” with our “Western European friends” — even so far as supporting what would become NATO’s Article 5, “a promise of mutual aid from all members of the alliance if any single member nation is attacked.”

“The American people knew the costs of war,” McConnell emphasized. “And they knew they’d rather preserve the peace.”

Other NATO members “have undertaken a profound transformation” in recent years, he said, “dramatically” increasing their defense spending to more equitably share the burden, so even “NATO’s newest members, Sweden and Finland, are each on track to meet the alliance’s new spending target years ahead of schedule,” and our European allies “continuing to dwarf America’s assistance to Ukraine, by a factor of 10 to 1.”

Specifically on the matter of Greenland, McConnell said Trump “is right that Arctic security is a central concern in our strategic competition with major adversaries, and he’ll find similar interest in Arctic security among allies like Denmark, which is investing billions of dollars in its own capabilities in the region.”

“The Danes have been close partners in the Arctic since World War II,” he said, “and brave Danish soldiers fought and died in America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

It is these “close ties” that “make America’s extensive reach in the Arctic possible,” McConnell argued, “and I have yet to hear from this Administration a single thing we need from Greenland that this sovereign people is not already willing to grant us.”

Therefore, he continued, trying to take control of Greenland would mean “incinerating the hard-won trust of loyal allies in exchange for no meaningful change in U.S. access to the Arctic,” and spelled out some of the significant and “disastrous” consequences he predicted.

This was “about more than Greenland,” and “about more than America’s relationship with its highly capable Nordic allies,” he said. “It’s about whether the United States intends to face a constellation of strategic adversaries with capable friends — or commit an unprecedented act of strategic self-harm and go it alone.”

Any “good progress” Trump had made in pushing our allies to increase their defense spending “would be for nothing if his Administration’s ill-advised threats about Greenland were to shatter the trust of our allies,” said McConnell, predicting that “following through on this provocation would be more disastrous for the President’s legacy than withdrawing from Afghanistan was for his predecessor.”

McConnell cited several recent polls showing Americans did not support taking Greenland but did view NATO alliances favorably, including fulfilling Article 5’s obligation to participate in a military response if a NATO member is attacked.

The American people “already understand the stakes,” and are “telling anyone who will listen that when they say peace through strength, they mean what President Reagan meant: ‘Leading with moral clarity, and distinguishing clearly between aggressors and victims. Investing in the Arsenal of Democracy, and equipping friends who fight for themselves. Preparing to win wars, and upholding the alliances that deter them.”

Watch the video above via YouTube.