Trump’s Greenland threats will backfire – Republican senator

The US president’s rhetoric will hamper his plans to acquire the Arctic island from Denmark, Rand Paul has said

US President Donald Trump’s threats to use military force to acquire Greenland could derail any chance of a negotiated deal, Republican Senator Rand Paul has said.

Trump has argued that the US should control Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory, citing security concerns and the need to counter Russia and China. He has not ruled out the use of force, alarming European NATO members who have rallied behind Denmark.

In an interview on ABC News’ ‘This Week’ aired on Sunday, Paul warned that Trump’s rhetoric would alienate Greenland’s population and undermine US diplomacy.

“But let’s say you wanted to buy Greenland – and I’m not disputing that that might be something we might want, to buy Greenland – you don’t get there by angering and denigrating the people who live there and saying, ‘We’re going to march the Marines in and take [it] if you don’t sell it to us,’” Paul said. “It doesn’t make them very willing to sell [to] us.”

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Paul added that threatening force would likely have the opposite effect. “So really, if your goal is somehow, we’re going to rattle the saber and then they’re going to sell it to us, I think it’s having the opposite effect,” he said.

On Sunday, Trump reiterated his intention to take control of the island “one way or another.”

“I’d love to make a deal – it’s easier – but we’re going to have it,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Last week, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned that a US attack on a fellow NATO member would amount to the end of the bloc. The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the UK have said Greenland’s future should be decided by Denmark and the island’s population alone.