WASHINGTON, January 14. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump and his aides consider the option where the residents of Greenland would vote in favor of joining the United States in a referendum to be the preferable one, the Politico newspaper reported.
According to the publication, the US side is, in particular, considering the possibility of conducting disinformation campaigns to influence the population of this autonomous territory of Denmark.
Its source say that "President Donald Trump and his top aides’ preferred path to the US taking ownership of Greenland is incentivizing people there to vote in a referendum to align with the United States." The newspaper clarified that US officials are contemplating the possibility of conducting "information and disinformation campaigns aimed at shifting public opinion, public sector financial offers and private sector inducements" from the US side for this purpose.
Politico emphasized that Trump’s statements about his willingness to use force to annex Greenland to the United States are causing discontent among its population. Residents interviewed by the newspaper’s journalists noted that they consider Trump's approach extremely disrespectful. "I’m not against purchasing Greenland," US Senator Rand Paul (Republican from Kentucky) stated in an interview with the newspaper, speaking about Trump’s approach. "But usually if I want to buy something from you, if you had a horse to sell, I don’t go up to you and tell you I hate you and tell you I’m going to use military force to take your horse. It’s not a great strategy for buying something."
When asked to comment on Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen’s remark that the island chose Denmark over the US on January 13, Trump said: "That’s their problem. I disagree with him. I don’t know who he is. Don’t know anything about him, but that’s going to be a big problem for him."
Greenland’s prime minister said earlier that "if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark."
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that Greenland should join the US. During his first presidential term, he proposed buying the island, and in March 2025 he expressed confidence that it could be annexed. In early 2026, Trump said Greenland was not adequately protected and claimed that Russia or China could "take" the island if the US did not act.
Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark. In 1951, Washington and Copenhagen signed a defense treaty in addition to their NATO commitments. Under the treaty, the US undertook to defend the island from potential aggression.