A Republican congressman has introduced laws that might give U.S. President Donald Trump the authority to annex Greenland and even make it a U.S. state, despite opposition from other members of the party to the threatened takeover of a NATO territory.
The proposed laws got here a day before the leaders of Greenland and Denmark, which controls the self-governing territory, offered their sharpest rebuke yet to the American annexation threats Tuesday.
Rep. Randy High quality of Florida, a staunch Trump ally, announced his Greenland Annexation and Statehood Act on Monday as a bid to support Trump’s national security goals within the Arctic and “put our adversaries on notice.”
The 2-page bill would authorize Trump to “take such steps as could also be vital, including by in search of to enter into negotiations with the Kingdom of Denmark, to annex or otherwise acquire Greenland as a territory of america.”
It will also create a framework for Trump to hunt expedited congressional approval “to confess the newly acquired territory as a state.”
High quality told Fox News it was essential to “say the Congress stands behind” Trump’s desire for Greenland and argued U.S. ownership would profit the territory’s population.
“The poverty rate in Greenland is way, much higher than it’s in Denmark. The country is run by socialists, and it will not be in America’s interests to have a territory that giant between america and Russia run by socialists,” High quality said.
Trump has long argued the U.S. should control Greenland but has escalated his rhetoric in recent weeks, saying a takeover will occur “whether or not they prefer it or not.” The White House has repeatedly declined to rule out military motion, though Trump and other administration officials have said a negotiated deal or purchase is preferable.
Asked if he would support using military force, High quality told Fox News, “I feel the perfect approach to acquire Greenland is voluntarily.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is about to fulfill with Danish and Greenlandic officials in Washington on Wednesday.
Greenland’s government has grown more forceful in pushing back against Trump, saying this week it “cannot accept” a U.S. takeover “in any way” and affirming the territory’s security is a NATO responsibility.
“Dear Greenlanders, it is best to know that we stand together today, we’ll accomplish that tomorrow, and we’ll proceed to accomplish that,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Tuesday during a joint press conference in Copenhagen alongside Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
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“If we have now to choose from america and Denmark here and now, we elect Denmark. We elect NATO. We elect the Kingdom of Denmark. We elect the EU,” Nielsen added.
Asked about Nielsen’s comments, Trump told reporters “that’s going to be a giant problem for him.”
Naaja Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for business and mineral resources, said earlier Tuesday that individuals in Greenland are “very, very frightened” in regards to the U.S. rhetoric, which she called “unfathomable.”
“People aren’t sleeping, children are afraid, and it just fills every little thing today. And we are able to’t really understand it,” Nathanielsen said at a gathering with lawmakers in Britain’s Parliament.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand have voiced support for Greenland and Denmark’s sovereignty without directly criticizing Trump’s comments. Anand is about to attend the opening of Canada’s latest consulate in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, in the approaching weeks.
Republicans ward off on Trump’s goals for Greenland
Although High quality and another Republicans in Congress have voiced support for Trump’s vision of a Greenland under U.S. control, there are others within the party who’ve pushed back.
After Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller made the case for acquiring Greenland and asserting the U.S. as a “superpower” in a CNN interview last week, Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska called the comments “really dumb” on social media.
A separate post by Bacon said it was “embarrassing for the U.S.” after a gaggle of NATO allies issued a joint statement reaffirming Greenland’s sovereignty.
“I hope Republicans rise up against this universally,” he told CNN. “That is appalling. Greenland is a NATO ally. Denmark is considered one of our greatest friends … so the way in which we’re treating them is basically demeaning and it has no upside.”
Bacon has also signed onto a Democratic bill introduced within the U.S. House on Monday that might block Trump from taking military motion against any NATO member, which would come with Greenland.
Republican Rep. Blake Moore of Utah and Democratic Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, who co-chair the bipartisan Congressional Friends of Denmark Caucus, said in a joint statement that in search of to amass Greenland “needlessly undermines” cooperation with Denmark and NATO.
“Sabre-rattling about annexing Greenland is needlessly dangerous,” the pair said. “The Kingdom of Denmark is a NATO ally and considered one of America’s closest partners. An attack on Greenland — a vital a part of that alliance — would tragically be an attack on NATO.”
Opposition has been wider within the U.S. Senate, where multiple senators have had harsh words against the opportunity of U.S. military motion.
“To invade Greenland and attack its sovereignty — a fellow NATO country — can be weapons-grade silly,” Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana told reporters last week.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, in an interview with ABC on Sunday, acknowledged Greenland could possibly be a national security asset for the U.S. but that Trump’s approach was not winning support from Greenlanders or Republicans.
“Let’s say you desired to buy Greenland — and I’m not disputing that that could be something we’d want,” he said. “You don’t get there by angering and denigrating the individuals who live there and saying, ‘We’re going to march the Marines in and take it when you don’t sell it to us.’ It doesn’t make them very willing to sell to us.
“I feel you’d be hard-pressed to search out someone in Greenland for it, but you’d even be hard-pressed to search out anyone in Washington who’s for a military invasion on either side of the aisle.”
Paul’s fellow Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, the previous longtime Republican leader within the Senate, said in a press release that “threats and intimidation by U.S. officials over American ownership of Greenland are as unseemly as they’re counterproductive.”
“The northernmost reaches of the globe could shape our strategic competition with major adversaries like Russia and China for many years to return. But when America behaves as if winning that competition requires trampling the sovereignty, respect, and trust of our allies, we’ll surely lose it.”
Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina issued a joint statement with Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of Recent Hampshire urging the Trump administration to respect Denmark and Greenland’s statements that the territory “will not be on the market.” The 2 senators co-chair the bipartisan Senate NATO Observer Group.
Most of the statements have noted Denmark matches the U.S. in its share of GDP spent on defence and efforts to spice up its military presence in Greenland, in addition to a 1951 treaty that permits the U.S. to do the identical under NATO cooperation.
Various the Republicans who’ve criticized Trump — including Bacon, McConnell and Tillis — have announced their plans to retire ahead of this yr’s midterm elections.
A bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation is headed to Copenhagen for meetings on Friday and Saturday in an attempt to indicate unity between america and Denmark.