Name: Trump on Greenland: ‘Anything less’ than US control ‘unacceptable’
Uploaded: 2026-01-14T17:14:28.000Z
Duration: 10 min 22 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of degree

New this morning, President Trump just said the United States needs Greenland and that anything less than total control is unacceptable.

The question is, what is he willing to do about it, given that the Prime Minister of Greenland says he does not want to be part of the United States.

The people of Greenland do not want to be part of the United States, according to opinion polls.

So the president just wrote that Greenland is, quote, vital for the golden dome that we are building and that NATO would be far more for formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the United States.

And then he said that anything less than that is unacceptable.

vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are set to meet with the foreign ministers of Greenland and Denmark, of which Greenland is a part.

The White House meeting is a first between the three governments and the presence of J.D.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy can tell you that Vice President Vance has created a scene or two at high level meetings.

Our Nick Robertson is standing by in Greenland.

First, though, let's go to the White House.

Yeah, look, a very stark message, John, from the President this morning and the timing of it, of course, very notable with this meeting that you laid out between Secretary Rubio, the vice President and the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland.

This is an issue and something that really President Trump has wanted for many years now.

It goes, goes back actually to his first term.

I'd remind you the President then had talked a lot about wanting to annex Greenland.

All of those efforts were unsuccessful, but

it's gotten a renewed focus, particularly in the days since that Venezuela operation.

Something that has left the President feeling emboldened.

Now, just to break down why the president and the people in that building behind me feel so strongly about trying to annex Greenland from Denmark, which to be clear, Denmark has made more repeatedly clear that it is not for sale Greenland, but

they want it for national security reasons.

Essentially the argument that has been made to me over and over again when I've talked about this with top officials in the administration is that one, they want to counter Russian and Chinese aggression in the region, but

they also see it as critical as part of their missile defense system.

Essentially one of the arguments that Vance has laid out publicly as well is that know if a foreign adversary wanted to launch, for example, a nuclear weapon onto the continent of North America or even to Europe, Greenland and having an important presence there would be crucial to having the missile defense system trying to intercept that.

And so this is something they've talked a lot about.

Now, I think a key question, of course, is it's clear what the president wants here, and

he's repeatedly making that clear publicly.

What isn't clear is how they're going to approach this.

This meeting, I'm told today between Rubio, Vance and the foreign ministers of both countries is really just kind of be a level setting, you know, see where both sides are, see what, if any, agreements could be reached, if there is any type of cooperation that could be made.

Rubio has made clear in the past that really it's the preference of the administration to see if they could potentially buy Greenland, for example, even after, again, the Danish prime minister and the leaders of both Denmark and Greenland saying it's not for sale, but

seeing if they could, you know, potentially make a deal that way.

I will say, though, however, President Trump has repeatedly now not left a potential military option off the table.

And so that has, you know, a lot of, I think that raises a lot of concerns as these leaders are coming to the White House today.

So it's going to be a very important meeting, potentially the first of many conversations, but

we'll really have to see where it all leads.

John or Atlanta train at the White of Selena.

All right, let's go now to CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nick Robertson.

Nick, the prime minister of Greenland very bluntly said he does not want to be owned by the United States.

The president of the United States saying that if they don't do it the easy way, they're going to do it the hard way.

The big picture here is what's happening with the people of Greenland.

And I think the latest language used by President Trump is going to be more chilling.

Everyone here has been telling us this meeting with the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers, with J.D.

vance, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

You know, when you speak to people here, it is very clear no one wants to be part of the United States.

Perhaps there are divisions on the independent side of how quickly the country should move to independence, which is a sort of an overwhelming view.

But the prime minister has made, as you said, made very, very clear.

Greenland, therefore, is part of the EU and part of NATO.

And that's where they look for their strength.

But having spoken to a good number of people here, it's a huge concern because they don't have an army here.

They don't have the ability to fight back against the United States.

And there's a very real concern even within government, that the President could make good on what he's saying and that Greenlanders could wake up one day soon and find out they're American.

I spoke to one businesswoman here and this is what she said to me.

If you don't know which country you're living in in a month, then, you know, is that real for you right now?

I really tried to push that thought down.

But that is the worst case scenario that, you know, in a month.

We don't even have military in Greenland because we don't do war.

So, of course, you know, there would be, I don't know, you know, we wouldn't be able to resist the American military.

So the big question here for people is how does the meeting go today?

It seems that both sides are in a very clear position, poles apart.

Everyone here knows that JD Vance has been to Greenland before.

It is very big thing on his personal as well as political agenda.

The Greenlandic Danish side are not for backing down.

So the question people have here is, well, how far will the eu, how far will NATO go to support us?

And I think it's fair to say at the moment that the major military, northern NATO members are squarely behind Denmark, Greenland.

There's a question mark perhaps over some of the others.

Yeah, a lot of people wondering how this is going to end and what that might look like.

Joining me right now is a member of Greenland's Parliament, Juno Berthelsen.

Thank you so much for coming back on Juno.

How do you respond to what we now just hear the latest from the President?

And what do you think it means for the Greenland and Danish leaders who are.

What they're walking into now in this White House meeting?

Thank you for having me on the show, first of all.

Well, we think that it's very positive that Greenland's Minister for Foreign affairs represents the Greenlandic people at the meeting.

And of course, positive with the diplomatic dialogue being initiated, which Nelagaq, our party, has advocated for for a long time.

And it's important to say that Greenland is and wants to be a part of the Western alliance and continue to be an ally of the US as well as an ally of NATO and Denmark.

We are through the, you know, through Greenland being a part of the currently, a part of the Danish kingdom is in NATO.

And Greenland has been an ally of the US since the Second World War.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Trump on Greenland: ‘Anything less’ than US control ‘unacceptable’

essentially

potentially

positive

presence