Donald Trump’s pre-inauguration Greenland threats have already prompted the Danish government to pledge more money to defend the mineral-rich island. | Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
By Paul McLeary and Robbie Gramer
With help from Nahal Toosi, Joe Gould, John Sakellariadis, Maggie Miller and Daniel Lippman
On the day he took office, President DONALD TRUMP insisted that U.S. control of Greenland was necessary for American security. But short of buying — or seizing — the island outright, Trump already has much of what he wants in Greenland.
The autonomous Danish territory has hosted U.S. bases and troops for decades, thanks to a 1951 treaty. The U.S. could expand its operations at its outposts there with (likely easily obtained) approvals from Greenland and Denmark. That could include new radar installations, expanded airfields for fighter planes and drones, and revamped port facilities for American warships and submarines.
Former NATO Secretary General JENS STOLTENBERG stressed that point in an interview: “The U.S. has a military base in Greenland already, so issues related to security, military presence, and also mineral [extraction] — I'm confident it's possible to deal with those as friends and allies.”
And just as Trump’s criticism of NATO defense spending helped get European allies to spend big, his pre-inauguration Greenland threats have already prompted the Danish government to pledge more money to defend the mineral-rich island. In December, Denmark said it was committing $1.5 billion for new patrol ships, improved runways to allow F-35s to operate, and increased drone surveillance.
“Several U.S. administrations have been pushing Denmark to improve domain awareness” over Greenland, said LIN ALEXANDRA MORTENSGAARD of the Danish Institute for International Studies. And Trump has already managed to get some of those things moving, a month before he took the oath for the second time.
The Trump administration swears there’s more needed.
“We need it for international security,” Trump said Monday as he signed executive orders. “And I’m sure that Denmark will come along — it’s costing them a lot of money to maintain it.”
MIKE WALTZ, Trump’s national security adviser, told Fox News this month the strategy is bigger than Greeland itself. “This is about the Arctic,” he said. “You have Russia that is trying to become king.” (The Trump administration didn’t respond to NatSec Daily’s request for additional comment.)
But the Pituffik Space Base, which boasts the Pentagon’s northernmost deepwater port and has hosted Navy and Coast Guard vessels, has long functioned as a strategic location to watch Russia and China. And it could easily increase operations there, if desired.
And former defense officials point out that any expansion in Greenland or in the Arctic in general, while in the U.S. interests, would also prove time consuming and come at a steep cost somewhere else.
The Arctic is “extremely expensive and extremely operationally challenging,” said SAM BRANNEN, who was until recently the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary for plans. “The question is: Expand Arctic posture to do what?”
In many ways the opening salvo in the Greenland saga is classic Trump: Go big with maximalist demands in order to get the other side to flinch, then let your opponent sweat out the details.
But even if the president’s focus on Greenland has its strategic merits, his plans to buy the island are fueling tensions with Denmark and Greenland’s government, whose elected leaders have reacted to the plans with a mixture of disbelief and anger.
There could be more money coming for Arctic capabilities from NATO members regardless of what happens between Trump and Greenland. NATO members started increasing their defense spending even before Trump won re-election, and Canada, the U.S., Sweden, Finland and Norway have all pledged to invest more in building up their Arctic defenses. It looks like Denmark will now also join that club.
The Inbox
HEGSETH TAKE NEXT STEPS: The Senate voted mostly on party lines — 51 to 49 — to end debate on PETE HEGSETH’s nomination to be Trump’s next Defense secretary, teeing up a final vote that is set to come on Friday.
It was a nail biter after crucial Republican swing voters Sen. SUSAN COLLINS (R-Maine) followed Sen. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-Alaska), in coming out publicly against him, as our own CONNOR O’BRIEN reported (for Pros!). They opposed him following a raft of allegations about his misconduct and excessive drinking.
CEASE-FIRE HOPES: Palestinian leaders are striking hopeful tones, perhaps for the first time, on the prospects of a more lasting cease-fire agreement to finally bring the devastating war in Gaza to an end, as our colleagues SUZANNE LYNCH and ZOYA SHEFTALOVICH report from the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. “We are of course very elated with the cease-fire, and certainly hope that the cease-fire brings something more sustainable in the future,” Palestinian Foreign Minister VARSEN AGHABEKIAN told the conference.
TRUMP GABS TO WEF: Trump blamed Ukraine’s war on Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN and said he wants NATO allies to spend at least 5 percent of their GDP on defense in a televised speech to the global elite that flocked to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum today. Currently, 23 of the 32 NATO allies meet the threshold of spending 2 percent of their GDP on defense. Five percent is a tall order, even for the defense behemoth that is the United States, which is currently at around 3.38 percent.
FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY — MORE CHANGES AT STATE: Secretary of State MARCO RUBIO ordered the State Department today to implement a Trump executive order and stop letting U.S. passport applicants choose “X” when specifying their gender, Robbie and our own NAHAL TOOSI report. The department also will suspend applications for requests of gender changes on documents, Rubio wrote in a note, which was described by two State Department officials granted anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue.
A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL — PANAMA: On the foreign front, Rubio is wasting no time starting to enact Trump’s agenda over at Foggy Bottom. Starting with a trip to Panama, as Nahal and Robbie scooped late Wednesday. The planned trip in the coming weeks comes on the heels of Trump musing about Washington wresting back control of the strategic Panama canal from the country. (Panama, unsurprisingly, isn’t too happy about those musings.)
Also on the trip agenda: Rubio is set to visit El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic — key countries in the Western Hemisphere to talk shop on ending illegal immigration flows to the United States (which, in case you live in a cave and hadn’t heard, is also a top foreign policy priority for Trump.)
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THE NEW ADMINISTRATION
GABBARD’S GAUNTLET: TULSI GABBARD’s high-stakes date with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is finally set, as our own JORDAIN CARNEY reports.
The former Democratic congressperson will appear before the panel next Thursday morning to launch her bid to become the next Director of National Intelligence, SSCI announced today. The much-awaited hearing was arranged after some routine hold-ups with her pre-hearing paperwork, and it comes as doubts about her ability to secure the nomination continue ricocheting around Capitol Hill.
Gabbard’s testimony could quell those worries — or kick them into overdrive. She is sure to face a volley of tough questions from the hawkish panel, which will want to know more about that Syria trip, and her past statements on Russia, FISA’s Section 702 surveillance power, Trump and Israel, to name just a few.
How bad does Gabbard have to flub to earn the boot? Judging by Trump’s other high-profile nominations, the bar seems improbably high. Then again, the new president and his top allies haven’t yet managed to silence her doubters.
THE IRAN FILE: Trump plans to put his Middle East envoy, STEVE WITKOFF, in charge of the administration’s Iran policy, suggesting he’s open to talks with Iran before unleashing another wave of his first-term “maximum pressure” strategy on the top U.S. rival in the Middle East, as FELICIA SCHWARTZscoops for the Financial Times.
Witkoff, as a reminder, played a role in brokering the Gaza cease-fire with top Biden administration officials in the days before Trump entered office. (Trump summarily fired his first-term Iran envoy, BRIAN HOOK, from a largely ceremonial post as a board member of the U.S.-funded Wilson International Center Scholars think tank.)
A BIG DAY FOR THE BOZELL FAMILY: Trump last night announced he picked L. BRENT BOZELL III as the next head of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other U.S.-funded broadcasting services.
As our colleague KYLE CHENEY pointed out on X, it was a big day for the Bozell family, as the same day of the announcement, Bozell’s son, LEO BRENT BOZELL IV, was pardoned by Trump for felonies he committed during the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection.
Keystrokes
YIKES — Supporters of foreign terrorist groups helped push conspiracy theories online in the weeks following the deadly New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans, according to a report out Thursday.
As our own MAGGIE MILLER writes in, a report from British-based think tank the Institute for Strategic Dialogue concluded that sites like Telegram saw a spike in discussion among violent extremists about the New Orleans attack, and that hateful comments about Muslims online more than doubled on the day of the attack.
In addition, ISD researchers saw an increase in online conspiracy theories alleging that the U.S. federal government intentionally carried out the attack, including through anti-semitic posts.
ON THE HILL
DRISCOLL DELAY DOLDRUMS: The Senate confirmation hearing slated for Thursday for Trump’s pick to run the Army, DAN DRISCOLL, was postponed indefinitely because his FBI background check hasn’t been delivered to Capitol Hill — a new snag for one of Trump’s people, as our own JOE GOULD reports (for Pros!).
Senate Armed Services Chair ROGER WICKER confirmed the matter in an interview. “The papers are late, yes,” Wicker said, and added he didn’t know when they would be ready.
It’s the most recent Trump nominee to see their hearing delayed due to paperwork delays. DOUG BURGUM, Trump’s pick to run the Interior Department, was the first, followed by former Rep. DOUG COLLINS, to run the Department of Veterans Affairs. Gabbard had similar delays.
Driscoll, a close friend of Vice President JD VANCE with investment banking and Army experience in Iraq, unsuccessfully ran for Congress in North Carolina in 2020.
The Senate Armed Services Committee’s top Democrat, Sen. JACK REED (D-R.I.), said in an interview that the delayed background check “reflects more on the efficiency of the FBI” and the Trump transition’s delays in signing agreements with the federal government than it does Driscoll himself.
“You’ll recall the Trump administration took a long, long time to work out the details, and that slowed down,” Reed said. “They couldn't begin to investigate until they had established a relationship with the Biden White House and that they started designating their nominees.”
SOME ACROSS THE AISLE LOVE: It’s not all fireworks, all the time over on Capitol Hill. Sen. BRIAN SCHATZ (D-Hawaii), the Senate’s new top Democratic appropriator for the State Department, says he is ready to work across the aisle with panel chair and lead hawk, Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.).
“Lindsay has a very solid history of making the case that this account makes America stronger, and I look forward to working with him on a bipartisan basis,” Schatz told Gould.
The comments came a day after Graham defended “soft power” in a confirmation hearing for Trump’s pick for White House budget chief, RUSS VOUGHT.
While Senate Foreign Relations Chair JIM RISCH (R-Idaho) told Joe “it’s an understatement” to say he and the progressive Schatz have differing politics, he praised Schatz’s heavy focus on Pacific nations from his home state of Hawaii, which “brings a healthy point of view” to the committee.
“I have a really good relationship with him. He’s easy to work with, fair, a good guy to negotiate with on a give-and-take basis,” Risch said.
INDIA’S STRATEGIC ROLE: Rep. AMI BERA (D-Calif.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and outsized Democratic voice on Asia-Pacific policy, is all in on India.
While India is historically a non-aligned country, “ultimately, I think even the Indians would admit they see their long term strategic and economic security aligning more with the West,” he told our own PHELIM KINE in today’s China Watcher newsletter.
“It's in our interest that we don’t see China and Russia get closer together. So the Indians can play a pivotal role there,” Bera said.
India could also play a role in brokering a peace deal in Ukraine, according to Bera. “I think the Indians can play a real role there because they have lines of communication with Russia. They have lines of communication with Iran that we don't.”
Transitions
— CELESTE WALLANDER, the former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs in the Biden administration, has joined West Exec Advisors as a senior adviser.
— ARTIE MCCONNELL, who most recently was an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, has joined the BakerHostetler law firm as a partner and will co-lead the firm's newly formed National Security Investigations and Litigation Task Force.
— HOLLY DAGRES, a scholar on Iranian domestic politics, has joined the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank as its Libitzky Family Senior Fellow.
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