Greenland has a population of 56,000, and its only native defense force is an armed Coast Guard.
Ironically, the defense of Greenland is provided by a U.S. military base, Pituffik Space Base.
The capital and largest city of Greenland is Nuuk, with a population of 20,100.
If the U.S. invaded Greenland to take over, Denmark could invoke Article V. I don’t see NATO countries sending military forces across the Atlantic to take on the U.S. military, with the U.S. ability to sink any ships before they got anywhere near Greenland.
NATO countries — and perhaps others — would find other ways to dramatically punish and exclude the U.S. and U.S. citizens and companies. All of a sudden, Russia would not be the international bad guy, and China would no longer be the country trying to expand its territory. It’s absolutely the worst thing to damage U.S. national security.
The real solution would be for the House to impeach Trump, and for the Senate to convict (remove) Trump.
This can be done in two days. And then let Vance know he better withdraw all U.S. forces.
Denmark has stated quite clearly that they will invoke Article 5.
The major European players – UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Poland – have basically declared that they will abide by it, and see it as an attack on themselves. That’s what the statement of solidarity on January 6th meant. And of course, we Nordics don’t even have to be asked – yes, we bicker with the Danes all the time, but they’re family.
Now, “armed conflict”, that’s where it gets a bit doubtful.
There will be a state of war – US military bases in Europe will be taken over, US assets frozen or confiscated, complete embargo on all trade, and so on. But militarily, neither party is really in a position to attack the other – it’s even doubtful if USA is going to be capable of capturing and keeping Greenland! The island has two airfields and two harbours, both easily blocked. And it’s a massive logistics challenge to keep any troops supplied. Remember, almost all of Greenland is a glacier – it’s not even wilderness where you can live off the land. You need to ship everything, and you need to ship it through the Royal Navy. Iffy, to say the least. (And as stated above, NATO has us Nordics – we have Mountain Rangers, a bit like the US Marines, only they’re specialized in fighting in Arctic conditions. Record low in Nuuk is -32.5C; they’ve practiced extensively in that sort of cold.)
And of course, either party landing at the territory of the other party is equally iffy:
- USA will have no forward bases and must ship everything across the Atlantic.
- NATO might be able to use Canada as a beachhead. It all depends on whether they go all in, or stay on the sidelines with more passive support. Too bad for the USA that Trump chose to piss them off mightily… but it’s still going to be a massive challenge; the idea will probably rather be to just, you know, be there, right on the US border.
I really can’t see either of those happening; there might be shots fired but it’s not going to be much of a military confrontation.
In all, it’s going to be a question of who is better equipped to deal with the severe economic fallout. Too bad for the USA that Trump chose to piss off the Chinese mightily… NATO might even let them have Taiwan as a part of a deal; it’s not as vital a security interest to us as it is to the USA and might be a price considered worth paying, especially if a wedge between China and Russia is included in the package.
It would be a economical disaster similar to a world war. The EU would sell us bonds, dump usd, sanction all the American companies in Europe and draw closer to China. Amazon, Citibank, Hp Morgan, Foxnews, Facebook, Disney, Microsoft, Oracle and all other us companies will all suffer financially.
What happens in war? You get the ability to confiscate enemy assets.
All gloves will be off with regards to economic issues.
Certainly, US arms manufacturers will get banned and European companies will take up their place permanently.
And then who is USA going to trade with now? Russia? North Korea?
I’m not saying Europe will not suffer but this is just bad business to seize your neighbours property just because you are bigger and stronger. You piss off your friends for no good reason.
Trump bankrupted his last 6 businesses including the casino he owned. The USA will be his next bankruptcy.
To people who think it won’t happen, the US has a considerable military presence already in Greenland and quite likely it could take it over without firing a shot. The problem is once Greenland is seized, that will be the start of the problem.
People won’t be kia WW1 style, I think even the risk of a nuclear exchange would be low. But it would be lead to a financial meltdown not seen since 2008.
America is one of the most strongest pillars of the global economy. If it falls back into isolationism, everything will fall apart. Everyone suffers.
It would be a lot more worse than when Trump declared his blanket tariffs in April 2025.
The problem is that Trump doesn’t think very far except how he can make quick easy mega money. He and his minions will load up on options prior to the announcement and make billions of dollars insider trading the fall out. American businesses, esp, small businesses and farms will suffer. The big boys in the know, BlackRock, Soros, will make another fortune. But for the ordinary Joe – he will suffer while Trump enriches himself.
America is good at bombing places, killing people, esp children in schools, “kicking ass”. Vietnam, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq, America has gone to these third world countries and “kicked ass”. “Civilians were killed hoorah!!” Then America gets bored and leaves. Running a country well, providing universal healthcare, making cities and public transport safe and efficient, sadly America is not so good at this today. Please reflect on this.
Greenland is one of the most inhospitable places in the world. The minerals that Trump wants are buried deep under thick ice and its going to be difficult and expensive to extract it. To compound the problem, Greenland doesn’t even belong to USA. And Europe would act with hostility if Trump decided to seize it. But he doesn’t care.
People like to say Trump has dementia. No he doesn’t. He fully knows what hes doing and doesn’t care who he hurts. You think he has dementia when he r6pes 14 year old girls? Yoh think he has dementia when he does that, invents tariff laws designed to kick the stockmarket so he and his family and rich buddies can make billions of dollars profiting off insider trading?
Dementia means he’s utterly clueless.
The orange painted face clown knows exactly what he is doing. Stop making excuses for him.
Trump hasn’t grown up from being that mean bully in the playground. He sees a smaller kid who has something he wants. And he’s grabs it because all his life, no one got him to stop. He graduated from the playground to “grabbing women by their pussies”. He stiffed his contractors and workers whenever he could. He negotiated with the banks by defaulting on his loans.
Trump is going to destroy America while Americans stuff their faces with popcorn and coca-cola.
