Trump says Greenland security deal gives U.S. a permanent role
Trump says the U.S. has a security agreement with Denmark and Greenland, but a planned signing and key terms remain unresolved.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
2 min read
President Donald Trump said Sept. 18 that a Trump Greenland security deal would give the United States permanent control over the territory’s security, while Danish and Greenlandic officials indicated a formal signing was still expected the following week.
In a Truth Social post, Trump said the United States had reached an agreement with the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenland that would allow Washington to take whatever steps it considered necessary to protect Greenland and U.S. security. He also described the arrangement as covering Greenland’s “other needs,” according to NBC News and Al Jazeera.
The public accounts do not show that the United States gained ownership, sovereignty or unilateral legal control over Greenland. Greenland is a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
What does Trump’s Greenland security deal mean?
Trump said the U.S. would begin building a large military presence in Greenland and that no adversary could establish a military base there or make sensitive investments without U.S. approval. He also said it would come at no cost to the United States.
Those are Trump’s descriptions of the proposed arrangement, not terms released in a public agreement. NBC News reported that the practical changes, financing and scope of any new military deployment were unclear.
The U.S. already has a military foothold in Greenland. NBC described one Space Force base there, with roughly 150 personnel, and said its role includes weather monitoring and early warning through radar coverage.
Was the agreement signed?
Not based on the reporting available Sept. 18. The office of Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Denmark, Greenland and the United States expected to sign an agreement during the United Nations General Assembly the following week, NBC reported. That left open whether a final, binding text had been completed when Trump announced the deal.
Frederiksen said a prospective agreement should strengthen shared security in the Arctic and North Atlantic while respecting the Kingdom of Denmark’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as Greenlanders’ right to self-determination, according to The Washington Post.
Key questions remain unanswered: what legal powers the U.S. would receive, where any expanded forces would be based, who would pay, how foreign-investment restrictions would work, and whether a signing took place as planned. Until those details are released, Trump’s broad language about permanent control remains a claim about the arrangement rather than a publicly defined transfer of authority.
NBC News’ report contains the initial announcement and its account of the proposed deal’s status.
This story draws on original reporting from NBC News.