Whether They Like It or Not

"We are going to do something on Greenland whether they like it or not."

The Easy Way or the Hard Way

Bloomberg reports Trump Says He'll Get Deal on Greenland, 'Easy Way' or 'Hard Way'

"I would like to make a deal, you know, the easy way. But if we don't do it the easy way, we're going to do it the hard way," Trump told reporters Friday at the White House.

Asked if he was considering making a financial offer to the people of the island to entice them to join the US, Trump said he was "not talking about money for Greenland yet."

"I might talk about that, but right now, we are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not," he said.

Trump's Greenland Grab Triggers Incredulity Then Rattles Europe

Also consider Trump's Greenland Grab Triggers Incredulity Then Rattles Europe

Never mind that the self-ruling territory is already part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a committed US ally, and secured through the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, a transatlantic military alliance the US itself helped found and effectively leads. It should be theirs.

Europe is paralyzed.

Not only do officials have no set strategy to address Trump's threats, they concede they don't understand what Trump wants and aren't sure how to improve things. Yet they know they still need the US, despite the once-steady ally growing increasingly hostile.

Even if the US backs off, Trump's willingness to use military threats against long-standing allies lays bare a painful new reality: European attempts to appease Trump are failing, raising ominous parallels with the wars that tore Europe apart last century. 

Greenland's Response

Greenland's Lawmakers tell Trump No Amount of Money Can Buy Greenland

There's no sum of money from Donald Trump that would persuade Greenlanders to join the US, two Greenlandic lawmakers in the Danish parliament said, underscoring opposition that spans the territory's political landscape.

Any attempt by the US president to entice the Arctic island with cash is doomed to fail and only risks pushing Greenlanders further away, said Aaja Chemnitz, one of two Greenland representatives in the Danish legislature, where she chairs the committee focused on the territory's affairs.

Trump administration officials have discussed sending direct payments to the island's residents in an effort to lure them to break away from Denmark and join the US, Reuters reported. The amounts under discussion ranged from $10,000 to $100,000 per person, according to the report.