Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made a scathing criticism of the President of Donald Trump threatens to take Greenland in a Senate speech Wednesday, warning it would be an “unprecedented act of self-harm” and “more disastrous” for his legacy than withdrawing from Afghanistan under the president. Joe Biden’s term.
Trump’s rhetoric directed at the self-governing territory of the Kingdom of Denmark has escalated as his second term has progressed, including social media posts declaring that the acquisition of Greenland is “vital” to the US and “[a]nothing short of that is unacceptable.”
Officials from Greenland, Denmark and several NATO countries have loudly rejected Trump’s demands for Greenland, citing its long history with Denmark, Greenlanders’ lack of interest in joining the US and its status as a NATO member.
However, Trump has not been deterred, even publicly floating the idea of taking military action – despite how overwhelmingly unpopular that would be with the American public.
A recent poll found that only 17% of Americans supported taking Greenland, and 4% supported using military force to do so. Even among Republicans, only 8% favored a military invasion of Greenland.
This week, Canada, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and other NATO allies are deploying troops to Greenland in a show of solidarity against American saber rattling.
McConnell, who has served in the Senate since 1985 and was the GOP leader for years before passing the torch to the senator. John Thune (R-SD) in 2024, spoke for more than 25 minutes on the Senate floor Wednesday ( transcript available here ) on the subject of Greenland, digging deep into US and NATO history to make his case and offering grim predictions about how “disastrous” it would be to continue doing so.
McConnell began by discussing the devastation of 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 immediately followed 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,” McConnell said, properly saw Russia as a threat, and supported a “mutual defense pact” with “our friends in Western Europe” — even to the extent of supporting what would become NATO’s Article 5, “a promise of mutual aid by all members of the nation if one member of the nation is attacked.”
“The American people knew the costs of war,” McConnell pointed out. “And they knew they’d rather keep the peace.”
Other NATO members have “undertaken a profound transformation” in recent years, he said, increasing their defense spending “dramatically” to more equitably share the burden, so that 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 “continue to help Ukraine11, by a small factor of America.”
Specifically on the Greenland issue, McConnell said Trump “is right that Arctic security is a central concern in our strategic competition with major adversaries, and he will find a 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 have fought and died in America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
It is these “close ties” that “make America’s extended Arctic reach possible,” McConnell argued, “and we have yet to hear from this administration one thing that we need from Greenland that this sovereign people is not already willing to give us.”
Therefore, he continued, trying to take control of Greenland would mean “incinerating the hard-won trust of loyal allies in exchange for a significant change in US access to the Arctic,” and spelled out some of the significant and “disastrous” consequences he predicted.
This was “more than Greenland” and “more than America’s relationship with its highly capable northern allies,” he said. “It’s about whether the United States intends to confront a constellation of strategic adversaries with capable friends — or commit an unprecedented act of strategic self-harm and do it alone.”
Any “good progress” Trump has made in pushing our allies to increase defense spending “would be for naught if his administration’s ill-advised threats about Greenland shatter the confidence of our allies,” McConnell said, predicting that “pursuing this provocation would be more disastrous for the president’s legacy than his president’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
McConnell cited several recent polls showing Americans did not support taking Greenland, but viewed NATO alliances favorably, including meeting the Article 5 obligation to engage 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 by force, they mean what President Reagan meant: ‘Lead with moral clarity and distinguish clearly between aggressors and victims. Investing in the Arsenal of Democracy and equipping friends who fight for themselves. Preparing to win wars for all.’
Watch the video above on YouTube.
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