U.S. President Donald Trump gestures and speaks during the Great Rural Health Investment Roundtable held in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 16, 2026.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
President Donald Trump said Friday that he could impose tariffs on countries “if we don’t make a deal with Greenland.”
“We need Greenland for our national security, so maybe I will, too,” Trump said at the White House.
These comments indicate that President Trump has become increasingly aggressive in recent months in seeking to acquire Greenland for the United States, turning to one of his favorite tools for leveraging power over foreign countries.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for additional information about Trump’s remarks.
The Trump administration has previously said it was considering multiple options to seize Danish territory, including using the U.S. military.
President Trump has argued that national security concerns posed by China and Russia make it imperative for the United States to own Greenland, even though the United States already maintains military bases there.
The White House also said the United States is considering a proposal to buy the Arctic island. But Greenland and Denmark have repeatedly said the territory is not for sale and has no intention of being absorbed into the United States.
President Trump’s suggestion that he may use tariffs to get his way on Greenland comes after he described a similar strategy to force foreign countries to raise drug prices.
President Trump is pushing to lower U.S. drug prices by mandating that domestic prices match lower prices paid overseas.
At a White House event on Friday, President Trump said he had threatened leaders of several countries with heavy tariffs on all imports into the United States if they did not raise the prices of medicines as part of a “most-favored-nation” agreement.
“We might do that with Greenland, too. We might put tariffs on countries that don’t agree with Greenland, because we need Greenland for our national security,” Trump said.
Delegates from Greenland and Denmark said they had “fundamental differences” with President Trump after meeting with Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Thursday.
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