House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) hammered President-elect Trump on Wednesday for what he characterized as an “obsession” with the idea of the U.S. taking over Greenland, accusing Trump of fixating on an issue of no consequence for working-class Americans.
Addressing reporters in the Capitol, Jeffries noted that Trump’s election victory in November was largely a referendum on the high cost of certain consumer staples, not the annexation of Greenland or the Panama Canal, as Trump proposed earlier in the week.
"What about the November presidential election had anything to do with invading Greenland or seizing it by force? I'm confused by the obsession around these comments,” Jeffries said.
“For far too long, the size of the middle class in this country has gone down, but the cost of living has gone up. That's a problem,” he continued. “The problem is not Greenland; the problem is not the Gulf of Mexico and the need to rename it; and the problem is not the Panama Canal. It's making sure that the American dream is brought to life for everyone in this nation."
Trump has, for years, floated the idea that Washington should commandeer Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory controlled by Denmark, and he amplified that proposal on Tuesday during a press briefing at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. He did not rule out the use of military force.
"We need Greenland for national security purposes. I've been told that for a long time, long before I even ran,” Trump said. “You have approximately 45,000 people there. People really don't even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security.”
The world’s largest island, Greenland is home to rich stores of mineral reserves, including rare earth minerals used in the production of popular consumer products like smartphones, flat-screen televisions and rechargeable batteries. Greenland’s location has also made it strategically enticing as a military outpost for the world’s most powerful countries, including China and Russia.
“I'm talking about protecting the free world," Trump said.
The idea seems to have some support among Republicans on Capitol Hill, where leaders of the House Foreign Affairs Committee promoted a graphic from the New York Post advocating for Trump’s “America First vision” for the hemisphere. Greenland, in the Post’s rendering, has been crossed out and replaced with “OURLAND.”
The proposal was quickly dismissed by leading officials of the Biden administration, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said Trump’s proposal is “obviously … not going to happen.”
John Bolton, who served as national security adviser under Trump's first administration, also blasted the proposal, warning that it would only help America’s top adversaries in Moscow and Beijing.
“If you're the prime minister of Denmark, your NATO ally is refusing to say they're not going to attack your territory,” Bolton told CNN on Wednesday.
Jeffries, for his part, declined to venture into the national security implications of Trump’s Greenland gambit. Instead, he wondered why Trump, after campaigning hard on the promise to slash inflation and reduce consumer costs, is now focused on obscure foreign policy proposals.
“What does it have to do with making sure that hardworking American taxpayers can live the American Dream?” Jeffries asked.
