(L/R) U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio depart from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House campus after meeting with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lökke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeld in Washington, DC, January 14, 2026.
Brendan Smialowski AFP | Getty Images
As President Donald Trump ramps up his rhetoric about controlling the Arctic, any attempt by the United States to seize Greenland by force would have “grave consequences” for the Western alliance and world order, former Icelandic president Olafur Ragnar Grimsson said.
“The fallout will be the largest in memory,” Grimsson warned on CNBC’s “Access Middle East.” Grimsson was the longest-serving president of Iceland, from 1996 to 2016, and is currently chairman of the Arctic Circle, the world’s largest annual meeting on Arctic issues.
President Trump has positioned Greenland, an autonomous region within the Kingdom of Denmark, as the center of U.S. national security and said China and Russia are increasing their presence in the region.
A meeting between officials from Greenland, Denmark and the United States at the White House on Wednesday ended in “fundamental disagreements” over ownership of the island, a Danish official said after the meeting, adding that the two countries would continue talks.
Ahead of the meeting, President Trump doubled down on his rhetoric about Greenland, saying on social media that anything other than Greenland becoming part of the United States is “unacceptable.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen vowed on Tuesday that if he had to choose, he would choose Denmark over the United States.
Grimsson said concerns about Russia and China’s growing influence in the Arctic are overblown. “At this time, there is no direct and clear threat to the Arctic from Russia and China,” he said.
Grimsson said China’s most prominent role is in the Russian Arctic, where it is involved in mining and energy resource exploration, and in some cases even participates in military exercises. He added that “China is not a big player” in Canada, the United States and across the Nordic Arctic, while Russia “is not there.”
The US should not ‘buy Greenland’, but ‘start at home’
Grimsson also argued that if President Trump’s goal is to strengthen the United States’ posture in the Arctic, the U.S. government should focus on domestic capabilities. The United States is “already an Arctic nation,” he said, noting that the extent of the Arctic Circle is larger than the state of Texas.
President Donald Trump’s previous administrations have underinvested in infrastructure such as icebreakers and U.S. Arctic ports, he added, leaving the U.S. behind its rivals. “If we want to grow our presence in the Arctic, we should start domestically,” Grimson said, noting that there are no major ports in the U.S. Arctic.
The Arctic leader said it was unclear what strategic or economic advantage the United States would gain by overtaking Greenland, noting that existing agreements already give the United States wide latitude.
“At this time, there are no barriers to strengthening the U.S. security or business presence within Greenland,” he said. “We haven’t heard any more detailed explanations of this desire, so it’s very difficult to understand what exactly it is.”
Rather, Grimson suggested that Trump’s worldview, shaped by his background in real estate, may be influencing his territorial obsessions. “He was probably the first major world leader to do all his training and thinking through the real estate business,” he said. “Real estate agents think in terms of location.”
Asked whether Trump might take Greenland by force, Grimsson said military action was possible given the power imbalance and Greenland’s small population, but warned that the political cost would be unprecedented.
“Yes, of course it’s possible,” he said, “but the question is…what are you going to do with it other than fly the American flag and get a spot?”
