Donald Trump said the United States will gain “total access” to Greenland under a developing arrangement with NATO allies, declaring that the deal would give Washington sweeping military reach over the strategically vital territory.
The president also said part of America’s proposed “Golden Dome” missile defense system would be built in Greenland.
“Essentially, it’s total access,” Trump told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo on Thursday during an interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “There’s no end, there’s no time limit.”
“I’m not gonna have to pay anything,” Trump added. “We’re gonna have total access to Greenland. We’re gonna have all military access that we want. We’re going to be able to put what we need on Greenland because we want it. We’re talking about national security and international security.”
Negotiations with NATO are still in the early stages, and the final terms remain unclear. The U.S. military already operates multiple bases across Greenland, a Danish territory, and has flexibility to expand its footprint, according to multiple reports.
Senior officials told The New York Times that top NATO military leaders met Wednesday with Trump administration officials to discuss Denmark potentially ceding “small pockets of Greenlandic” territory to the United States for base construction. Sources compared the concept to British military bases in Cyprus, which are treated as sovereign U.K. territory.
Trump said NATO would work with the U.S. on deploying the Golden Dome missile defense system and sharing access to mineral resources.
“If the bad guys start shooting, it comes over Greenland,” Donald Trump told Bartiromo. “So we knock it down.”
The president did not spell out details of the agreement but said talks were progressing quickly.
Trump’s comments followed his decision to pull back on sweeping tariff threats against European nations, which had rattled markets earlier this week. On Wednesday, he said “additional discussions” on Greenland were underway and that Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff were handling negotiations.
Trump told reporters in Davos that the agreement would be announced “pretty soon.”
“It gets us everything we needed to get,” he said. “It’s a deal that everybody’s very happy with.”
Markets rebounded after Trump softened his tariff posture, with futures turning positive Wednesday morning following a sharp sell-off a day earlier.
Over the weekend, Trump had threatened 10 percent tariffs on Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Finland after those countries sent troops to Greenland as part of a NATO show of force.
Since the start of his second term, Trump has repeatedly argued the United States must secure Greenland to prevent Russia and China from gaining dominance in the Arctic.
The island offers strategic access to emerging Arctic shipping routes as melting ice opens new lanes and exposes vast natural resources. Greenland is also rich in oil, gold, graphite, copper, iron and rare earth minerals, and already hosts NATO military infrastructure.
The Trump administration views Greenland as a critical platform for the Golden Dome missile defense system, which it says would strengthen North America’s protection against ballistic threats.
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