Trump says emerging Greenland deal gives U.S. full access to the island

President Trump said Thursday that the Arctic deal under negotiation will give the U.S. “total access” to Greenland for the foreseeable future.

The president is relishing the deal as a win after his pressure on European leaders who sided firmly with Denmark, which controls Greenland and had resisted his push to annex the Arctic island.

“It’s really being negotiated now, the details of it, but essentially it’s total access. There’s no end, there’s no time limit,” Mr. Trump said on Fox Business’ “Mornings With Maria.”

Visiting the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mr. Trump agreed to drop his threat to impose new tariffs on eight European nations that fought his Greenland plans.

He eased off his tariffs after striking a framework deal with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, concluding with what the president wanted.

While they’re still filling in the details, Mr. Trump said the deal would help him implement his Golden Dome project to deter missiles from adversaries.

“Everything comes over Greenland. If the bad guys start shooting, it comes over Greenland,” Mr. Trump said. “It’s pretty invaluable. It’s amazing. You know, Ronald Reagan had the idea a long time ago, but we didn’t have any technology at that point. The concept was great, but there was no technology. Now we have unbelievable technology.”

The president said the U.S. can get as many bases as it wants on Greenland or move as much equipment as it wants.

“We’re getting everything we want at no cost,” Mr. Trump said.

The White House has not released details on the framework, but said the agreement offers the latest evidence that Mr. Trump is the pact master.

“If this deal goes through, and President Trump is very hopeful it will, the United States will be achieving all of its strategic goals with respect to Greenland, at very little cost, forever,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement to The Washington Times. “President Trump is proving once again he’s the Dealmaker in Chief. As details are finalized by all parties involved, they will be released accordingly.”

Aspects of the deal under discussion include an increased NATO mission in the Arctic; creating pockets of American soil on Greenland to ensure territory for U.S. bases in perpetuity; and restricting non-NATO countries like Russia and China from tapping into minerals on Greenland, according to The New York Times, which cited anonymous sources.

Speaking on Air Force One late Thursday, Mr. Trump was coy about details but offered a timeline for a firmer agreement.

’We’ll have something in two weeks,” he said, predicting the new deal would be “much more generous to the United States.”

Carving out portions of Greenland for the U.S. might be the thorniest piece for Denmark.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement Thursday that Denmark is open to engagement with NATO and is glad the alliance is coordinating with the U.S.

“NATO is fully aware of the position of the Kingdom of Denmark. We can negotiate on everything political; security, investments, economy. But we cannot negotiate on our sovereignty,” she said.

Some U.S. lawmakers, including GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, worried about “great damage done” with European allies.

“It’s going to take probably the next president to spend a lot of his time trying to fix,” he told reporters at the Capitol.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who was in Davos, said the retreat on tariffs and military force to seize Greenland was an example of “TACO,” or “Trump Always Chickens Out.”

U.S. stocks saw a sell-off earlier this week, given Mr. Trump’s Greenland threats, though they rebounded by midweek as the president removed his tariff threats and announced the deal with Mr. Rutte.

Mr. Trump on Thursday noted the stock market “went up very substantially after we announced it.”

Mr. Rutte praised Mr. Trump at Davos for getting NATO countries to spend more on their mutual defense. The secretary-general also said the U.S. remains critical to NATO.

But some European officials want to see more about what Mr. Trump and Mr. Rutte agreed to on Greenland.

“First of all, nobody knows exactly what the details of this so-called solution or deal are. We have to look to the details,” Germany’s Bernd Lange, a European Parliament member and key trade official, told CNBC.

“The decision about such a solution or deal should be taken by Denmark and the people in Greenland, not between two important men.”