Trump talks Greenland at NATO, says U.S. could pull troops from Europe

President Donald Trump on Tuesday resurrected his push for the U.S. to acquire Greenland, and suggested the U.S. could pull all of its armed services members out of Europe in response to the Continent’s continued pushback on the issue.

The island territory “should be controlled by the United States,” Trump said shortly after he arrived in Ankara, Turkey, for a NATO summit.

The 32-member alliance — which includes Denmark, of which Greenland is a part — fell into a crisis in January, as Trump demanded that the U.S. must take control of the island territory on national security grounds.

In a bilateral meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday afternoon Ankara time, Trump vented that Europe’s refusal to go along with his expansionist desire is “what hurt my relationship with NATO.”

“Because Greenland doesn’t help Denmark. Denmark doesn’t spend money to really help Greenland, but it’s an important part for the United States,” Trump told reporters.

“And it’s surrounded by China ships and Russian ships, and that’s not going to happen, the ships, is, it’s not going to happen,” he said, repeating claims about foreign military threats against the self-governing island that experts on Greenland have denied.

Greenland “should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark,” Trump went on. “And when they wouldn’t go along with it, and with all the money we spend to help them with Russia — we don’t have to spend any money.”

“We could remove all of our soldiers out of Europe,” he said. “Because as you probably noticed, Europe’s a very different place than it was 20 years ago.”

“And they better be careful,” Trump went on, speaking broadly about Europe, “with immigration and energy. If they’re not careful with those two things, you’re not going to have a Europe anymore.”

He then ended the portion of the meeting that was open to the press.

The U.S. president’s pursuit of Greenland had become a major trans-Atlantic issue at the start of the year, sparked by Trump’s repeated claims that the U.S. needed to acquire the island. Greenlandic lawmakers have insisted the island is not for sale.

Trump, who had refused to rule out the use of military force to annex Greenland, abruptly announced in late January, however, that he and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had formed a “framework of a future deal” with respect to the territory.

A working group of representatives from the U.S., Denmark and Greenland have since been meeting to discuss the way forward.

Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reportedly said late last month that he expects the working group to find a solution by the end of the year.

Asked Tuesday about Trump’s latest comments on Greenland, Finnish President Alexander Stubb told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick: “Be more Arctic, be more cool. If it is about Arctic security, we have seven countries that are Arctic nations in the alliance.”

He added: “Finland has trained 1 million soldiers in Arctic conditions; we basically live in Arctic conditions. Let’s keep that in mind. Let’s, you know, continue the process that the Danes, the Americans and the Greenlanders have.”