There is no way for the US to take over Greenland. The US ALREADY has a base in Greenland. It already has soldiers there under a sharing agreement with Greenland / Denmark. Sending more soldiers would not make it a US region. Thre is no legal way to make it part of the US without Denmark and Greenland’s consent which they wouldn’t get.
If he were able somehow to install a fake governor and take over the parliament and police it would just make the US de facto in control for as long as he could keep that up. It would NOT lead to a shootout with NATO. They would just use every non military means to oppose it. And in worst case sit it out until the Americans voted in more reasonable legislators or the next president.
But it wouldn’t get that far. The US five star generals are advised by a team of lawyers each and the lawyers would advise them that it is illegal to take over the parliament of Greenland under both international law and the UN Charter and the NATO treaty.
They would advise them that they should follow the president’s orders for the Maduro abduction because of legal precedent in the US even though it is seen as illegal by just about everyone.
But there is no precedent, no Supreme Court cases, nothing could justify taking over the government of Greenland.
So the generals would say no, would be not just permitted to but required to. They are trained in this from a raw cadet that they must not obey illegal orders.
In more detail:
He can’t do this. There is no legal process by which Greenland is likely to become part of the USA.
There is a process which would work but only with consent of Greenlanders which he’d never geet
- first Greenland gets independence from Denmark which it wants to do anyway but on a timescale of years not weeks
- then it decides to join the USA
But that’s where it would fall apart.
- Greenland would NOT decide it wants to be part of the USA.
- Greenland would remain in NATO if it left Denmark.
And the Greenlanders are in no hurry to leave Denmark though they are likely to do it at some point.
The US already has access to Greenland. It is permitted to send soldiers there. It has a military base there under a sharing agreement with Greenland.
Photo here 
About the base here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pituffik_Space_Base
This is part of the military sharing agreement:
QUOTE STARTS
…
- (3) In cases where it is agreed that responsibility for the operation and maintenance of any defense area shall fall to the Government of the United States of America, the following provisions shall apply:
- (a) The Danish Commander-in-Chief of Greenland may attach Danish military personnel to the staff of the commanding officer of such defense area, under the command of an officer with whom the United States commanding officer shall consult on all important local matters affecting Danish interests.
- (b) Without prejudice to the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark over such defense area and the natural right of the competent Danish authorities to free movement everywhere in Greenland, the Government of the United States of America, without compensation to the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark, shall be entitled within such defense area and the air spaces and waters adjacent thereto:
- (i) to improve and generally to fit the area for military use;
- (ii) to construct, install, maintain, and operate facilities and equipment, including meteorological and communications facilities and equipment, and to store supplies;
- (iii) to station and house personnel and to provide for their health, recreation and welfare;
- (iv) to provide for the protection and internal security of the area;
- (v) to establish and maintain postal facilities and commissary stores;
- (vi) to control landings, takeoffs, anchorages, moorings, movements, and operation of ships, aircraft, and water-borne craft and vehicles, with due respect for the responsibilities of the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark in regard to shipping and aviation;
- (vii) to improve and deepen harbors, channels, entrances, and anchorages.
- © The Government of the Kingdom of Denmark reserves the right to use such defense area in cooperation with the Government of the United States of America for the defense of Greenland and the rest of the North Atlantic Treaty area, and to construct such facilities and undertake such activities therein as will not impede the activities of the Government of the United States of America in such area.
- (4) In cases where it is agreed that responsibility for the operation and maintenance of any defense area shall fall to the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark, the following provisions shall apply:
- (a) The Government of the United States of America may attach United States military personnel to the staff of the commanding officer of such defense area, under the command of an officer with whom the Danish commanding officer shall consult on all important local matters affecting United States interests pursuant to the North Atlantic Treaty.
- (b) The Government of the United States of America, without compensation to the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark, may use such defense area in cooperation with the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark for the defense of Greenland and the rest of the North Atlantic Treaty area, and may construct such facilities and undertake such activities therein as will not impede the activities of the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark in such area
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/den001.asp
.
So what do they do next?
- March into the capital Nuuk and take over the police station and parliament? [NO WAY]
Why? On what legal authority?
Again on what legal authority?
- Abduct the prime minister of Greenland Jens-Frederik Nielsen? [NO WAY]
On what basis, on what charges? For not being an American citizen? He is not charged with any crime in Greenland or in the USA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_Greenland
It’s not about a military shootout.
In the absurd scenario where they did all that, march into Nuuk, take over the police and parliament, send in tax inspectors, and install a US governor, Denmark would send its police and military there and try to peacefully escort the US soldiers and police and the fake governor out of Nuuk.
It wouldn’t be NATO forces fighting each other.
This is what the Danish Prime Minister said:
QUOTE STARTS
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned President Donald Trump to stop threatening to acquire Greenland just a day after the U.S. carried out a military operation that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
“The Kingdom of Denmark — and thus Greenland — is part of NATO and is therefore covered by the alliance’s security guarantee. We already have a defense agreement between the Kingdom and the United States today, which gives the United States wide access to Greenland,” Frederiksen said Sunday, in a statement.
“I would therefore strongly urge the United States to stop the threats against a historically close ally and against another country and another people who have said very clearly that they are not for sale,” she said.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/04/trump-denmark-greenland-frederiksen-venezuela.html
The abduction of Maduro is illegal but Congress, the courts and the military all have a decades long track record of not objecting to that particular brand of illegality and it doesn’t mean they would permit other types of illegal operation. It is a special thing to how the American lawyers, legislators and military respond to those particular type of actions, they see them as justified in international law using reasoning that non Americans typically don’t find plausible.
It does NOT mean they would permit an illegal military take over of the sovereign government and parliament and police of Greenland without any legal basis for it.
Such an action would get combined internal US opposition of
- the legislators
- the courts
- the military
- huge opposition from NATO members too.
They wouldn’t get in a shooting war with the USA - no way. But European countries would never recognize US authority and they would
- send the Danish police to Greenland,
- sanctions on the US
- resolutions against the US in the UN security council
- resolution against the US in the EU
- call emergency meetings of NATO
They would use every non military tool they have available to them to overturn it
And in the worst case just sit it out and not recognize US claims to Greenland until the US voters vote in more reasonable legislators in the mid terms - or a new president in 2028.
I can’t see it going that far. But if he went ahead and somehow
- persuaded the military that it was legal (I don’t see how)
- was able to forestall a ⅔ majority vote against it in both chambers of Congress
He’d end up with a
- de facto control of the Greenland parliament,
- a token US governor that nobody recognized as legal except the USA
- surely the American people voting against him
- increased disapproval by the American people with only the far right supporting him.
He can’t give himself this power either.
He has less and less power indeed because he went too far and is no longer able to override his own party and force them to vote for things he wants them to vote for.
That is important because Congress has the ability if he goes too far to pass laws that limit what he does with a ⅔ majority in both houses.
And when it comes to passing legislation most of it can be blocked by a filibuster with the Dems in the Senate and he hasn’t been able to bully the Dems.
We got the clearest example of how he has far less influence over his party with
- the Epstein files, he didn’t want those released but was forced to accept it and the bill had only one vote against in the House and passed by a consensus in the Senate.
He had to let it through after a few Republicans joined all the dems to bring it to the floor in the House against the speaker Mike Johnson’s attempt to block it.
He also
- lost the bill to restrict the ability of states to legislate against AI with only 1 vote in favour in the Senate.
He has
- members of his own party speaking up against his actions in Venezuela.
He has been
- unable even to get a continuing resolution of the Biden budget through to September and faces another continuation vote this January likely to lead to another government shutdown.
His party has had
- big swings against it in all the local elections and special elections.
He hasn’t yet lost a seat in the House but only because the special elections so far have been for seats that should be safe Republican and often had a much narrower margin.
- NY flipped to a socialist democrat Mayor after he put a lot of funding into his opponent.
He’s been stopped in the courts
- for trying to export illegal immigrants without due process
His attempt at overriding birthright citizenship through force
- was blocked also - he didn’t get the Supreme Court decision he wanted there despite news stories giving the impression he did.
The Supreme Court will soon
- issue a ruling on the legality of his across the board tariffs and from their preliminary oral arguments and the line of their questions are likely to at least restrict it in some way.
He is significantly restricted in many ways by the legislators and the courts.
He is also facing the judgement of the voters in the elections.
And on military matters there is no way that he can get the military to agree to anything very illegal in international law.
With the military there might be some things he could do, like send more soldiers to the base in Greenland.
But take an example.
- Suppose Trump ordered a general to send soldiers into Nuuk to take over the Greenland parliament and to install a US governor
The general would get his lawyers on the phone with Trump’s lawyers - every 5 star general has a team of lawyers to hand to assist him to make legally correct military decisions.
Unlike the case with Maduro - where although internationally just about everyone says it is illegal, legal advice would be that he should follow the president’s orders by precedent and Supreme Court cases,
- there is no way that lawyers would advise that it is legal to take over the government of a region belonging to another NATO member
So the general would surely refuse.
If Trump insisted it would be kicked down to Congress to decide.
