Trump Presses Greenland Control Ahead of Key White House Talks (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: President Trump just said the United States needs Greenland and that anything less than total control is unacceptable. The question is, what is he willing to do about it, given that the prime minister of Greenland says he does not want to be part of the United States? The people of Greenland do not want to be part of the United States, according to opinion polls. So the president just wrote that Greenland is, quote, vital for the golden dome that we are building and that NATO would be far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the United States. And he said that anything less than that is unacceptable. Again, how unacceptable and what will he do about it? Today, Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are set to meet with the foreign ministers of Greenland and Denmark, of which Greenland is a part. The White House meeting is a first between the three governments and the presence of J.D. Vance is notable. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky can tell you that Vice President Vance has created a scene or two at high-level meetings. Our Nick Robertson is standing by in Greenland. First, though, let's go to the White House. CNN's Elena Trina is there. Elena.

[00:01:03] Speaker 2: Yeah, look, a very stark message, John, from the president this morning and the timing of it, of course, very notable with this meeting that you laid out between Secretary Rubio, the vice president, and the foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland. Look, just to break this down, this is an issue and something that really President Trump has wanted for many years now. It goes back actually to his first term. And I'd remind you, the president then had talked a lot about wanting to annex Greenland. All of those efforts were unsuccessful, but it's gotten a renewed focus, particularly in the days since that Venezuela operation, something that has left the president feeling emboldened. Now, just to break down why the president and the people in that building behind me feel so strongly about trying to annex Greenland from Denmark, which, to be clear, Denmark has made repeatedly clear that it is not for sale, Greenland. But they want it for national security reasons. Essentially, the argument that has been made to me over and over again when I've talked about this with top officials in the administration is that, one, they want to counter Russian and Chinese aggression in the region, but they also see it as critical as part of their missile defense system. Essentially, one of the arguments that Vance has laid out publicly as well is that, you know, if a foreign adversary wanted to launch, for example, a nuclear weapon onto the continent of North America or even to Europe, Greenland, and having an important presence there would be crucial to having the missile defense system trying to intercept that. And so this is something they've talked a lot about. Now, I think the key question, of course, is, it's clear what the president wants here, and he's repeatedly making that clear publicly. What isn't clear is how they're going to approach this. This meeting, I'm told, today between Rubio, Vance, and the foreign ministers of both countries is really to kind of be a level setting, you know, see where both sides are, see what, if any, agreements could be reached, if there's any, you know, type of cooperation that could be made. Rubio has made clear in the past that, really, it's the preference of the administration to see if they could potentially buy Greenland, for example, even after, again, the Danish prime minister and the leaders of both Denmark and Greenland saying it's not for sale, but seeing if they could, you know, potentially make a deal that way. I will say, though, however, President Trump has repeatedly now not left a potential military option off the table. And so that has, you know, a lot of, I think that raises a lot of concerns as these leaders are coming to the White House today. So it's going to be a very important meeting, potentially the first of many conversations, but we'll really have to see where it all leads, John.

[00:03:46] Speaker 1: For our Atlanta Treen, at the White House, Elena, thank you very much. Sarah.

[00:03:50] Speaker 3: All right. Let's go now to CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nick Robertson. He is on the ground for us in Greenland. Nick, the prime minister of Greenland very bluntly said he does not want to be owned by the United States. The president of the United States saying that if they don't do it the easy way, they're going to do it the hard way. The big picture here is what's happening with the people of Greenland? What are they saying?

[00:04:15] Speaker 4: Yeah, they're incredibly concerned, and I think the latest language used by President Trump is going to be even more chilling. Everyone here has been telling us this meeting with the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers, with J.D. Vance, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, today is a big meeting. It is a big deal. It has everyone here worried. You know, when you speak to people here, it is very clear. No one wants to be part of the United States. There are divisions on the independent side of how quickly the country should move to independence, which is a sort of an overwhelming view. But the prime minister has made, as you said, made very, very clear, Greenland is part of the kingdom of Denmark. Greenland, therefore, is part of the EU and part of NATO, and that's where they look for support and that's where they look for their strength. But having spoken to a good number of people here, it's a huge concern because they don't have an army here. They don't have the ability to fight back against the United States. And there's a very real concern, even within government, that the president could make good on what he's saying and that Greenlanders could wake up one day soon and find out they're American. I spoke to one businesswoman here, and this is what she said to me.

[00:05:32] Speaker 5: If you don't know which country you're living in in a month, then, you know.

[00:05:38] Speaker 4: Is that real for you right now?

[00:05:40] Speaker 5: No. I don't want it to be real. I really try to push that thought down, but that is the worst case scenario, that, you know, in a month I'm American. We don't even have military in Greenland because we don't do war. So of course, you know, there would be, I don't know, you know, we wouldn't be able to resist the American military. No one can resist the American military.

[00:06:07] Speaker 4: So the big question here for people is, how does the meeting go today? It seems that both sides are in a very clear position, polls apart. Everyone here knows that J.D. Vance has been to Greenland before. It is a very big thing on his personal as well as political agenda. The Greenlandic, Danish side are not for backing down. That's very clear. So the question people have here is, well, how far will the EU, how far will NATO go to support us? And I think it's fair to say at the moment that the major military northern NATO members are squarely behind Denmark, Greenland. There's a question mark perhaps over some of the others.

[00:06:47] Speaker 3: Yeah. A lot of people wondering how this is going to end and what that might look like. Nick Robertson, thank you so much.

[00:06:54] Speaker 6: Joining me right now is a member of Greenland's parliament, Juno Berthelsen. Thank you so much for coming back on, Juno. How do you respond to what we now just hear the latest from the president and what do you think it means for the Greenland and Danish leaders who are what they're walking into now in this White House meeting?

[00:07:14] Speaker 7: Good morning, Kate. Thank you for having me on your show, first of all. We think that it's very positive that Greenland's minister for foreign affairs represents the Greenlandic people at the meeting. And of course, positive with the diplomatic dialogue being initiated, which our party has advocated for for a long time. And it's important to say that Greenland is and wants to be a part of the Western Alliance and continue to be an ally of the U.S. as well as an ally of NATO and Denmark. We are through the, you know, through Greenland being a part of the currently a part of the Danish kingdom is in NATO. And Greenland has been an ally of the U.S. since the Second World War. We're allies now. We will stay allies in the future.

[00:08:03] Speaker 6: So that will be the most important things that we would hope would be communicated at the meeting and that there will be understanding between Greenland and the U.S. But hearing the president of the United States set the tone going in and the vice president, as we know from experience, does not really differ from President Trump and his views, especially in policy. When the president of the United States says anything less than Greenland being in the hands of the United States is unacceptable, I mean, you may see this meeting as progress, but what do you see and do you see that as a new threat from the president of the United States?

[00:08:45] Speaker 7: Well, we just want to make sure that these diplomatic lines are being used and that they're initiated now. What is being said to the media, and I've done a lot of interviews with media from all around the world saying that Trump has his own style and has a way of creating headlines and saying these things that kind of create outrage. But I think it's important to remember that both Republicans and Democrats are not in support of having this aggressive rhetoric and the advances that we've seen from Trump and some of his high position people in his administration. We have to remember that a lot of Republicans, which are creating the background for Trump to be in the position that he is, they do want to seek diplomatic solutions. They don't want to hear any talks about invasion of Greenland, destroying the NATO that we see today and creating any more tension between the United States and Denmark and the rest of the world, especially countries from NATO. So the most important thing for me to say is that the Greenland people is using its right to speak on behalf of itself. We have our minister at the meeting representing the Greenlandic people and that is a very positive thing that's happening from our point of view.