European nations including Germany and France have sent additional troops to Greenland in a show of force against the U.S. and President Donald Trump’s efforts to bring the territory of Denmark fully under U.S. control for national security purposes.
The message to Washington, D.C. is clear: Stay out.
Kind of odd, coming from Europe, where when it comes to the U.S. stationing forces across the Atlantic Ocean on the European continent, participating in NATO and deterring Russia the message since World War II has been unequivocal: Don’t leave.
The standoff comes amid the President’s continued statements of the need for Greenland, specifically as a part of the President’s proposed Golden Dome missile defense system, most recently at the Oval Office taking questions from reporters on Jan. 14, stating, “[W]e’re going to see what happens with Greenland. We need Greenland for national security.” And that includes Golden Dome.
Besides Russia and Canada, Greenland is the closest country to the strategically all-important North Pole, the shortest route for Russia’s intercontinental ballistic missiles to reach the United States in the event of a nuclear war.
Initially coming in at $24 billion in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and further authorized in the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, the Golden Dome system will be according to the Congressional Research Service “an integrated air and missile defense system… to combine a range of capabilities to create a ‘system of systems’ to protect the United States from ‘aerial attacks from any foe,’” quoting the President’s January 2025 executive order and a May 2025 statement from War Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Trump added, “You know, I’m not the first one. This was talked about in by President Truman and 40 years before President Truman, they were talking about it. They’ve been talking about this for 100 years. This is not anything so new. A lot of people don’t realize that, but this was a hot subject. Probably not as hot as it is now, but it was a hot subject for a long time. We need it for national security and that includes for Europe and I spoke with you know Mark [Rutte], the head of NATO, and he really wants to see something happen.”
Here, Trump is once again asserting the Monroe Doctrine, first established by President James Monroe in 1823 to block any further colonization of North and South America by Europe or anyone else.
Then, Monroe told Congress in his State of the Union Address: “We… declare that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European power we have not interfered and shall not interfere. But with the Governments who have declared their independence and maintained it… we could not view any interposition… by any European powers in any other light than as a manifestation of any unfriendly disposition toward the United States.”
This was later expanded by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, the so-called Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, to include the possibility of the use of military force by the U.S. to protect the Americas, telling Congress: “[I]n the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however, reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power… We would interfere with them only as a last resort and then only if it became evident that their inability or unwillingness to do justice at home and abroad had violated the rights of the United States or had invited foreign aggression to the detriment of the entire body of American nations.”
Over the years, it’s been asserted in Panama, Cuba including the missile crisis, Grenada, Nicaragua and most recently Venezuela as the U.S. captured Chinese and Russian ally and now former dictator Nicolas Maduro.
As for Greenland, a year ago, then-President Elect Trump touched off the discussion at a press conference on Jan. 7, 2025 when Trump was explicitly asked if he would rule out military force to take Greenland. Trump said, “No… I can’t assure you… You’re talking about Panama and Greenland, no, I can’t assure you on either of those two, but I can say this we need them for economic security — the Panama Canal was built for our military I’m not going to commit to that now it might it might be that you’ll have to do something…”
Of course he didn’t rule it out. No president worth a darn would ever rule out force to uphold the Monroe Doctrine. And no president ever has formally. Maybe there were Carter and Obama corollaries to the doctrine presidential historians have missed. In 1977, Jimmy Carter did turn over control of the Panama Canal to Panama (which later hired China afterward to run it). And in 2013, then-Secretary of State John Kerry told the Organization of American States that “The era of the Monroe Doctrine is over.” To be fair, Obama never said it.
But even if he had, President Trump reinstated it.
Maybe one day there will indeed be a president who formally invites foreign powers to occupy the Americas but it is not this president, for certain.
On the main issue, the President is saying we need Greenland for Golden Dome missile defense system and also space weapons overhead that come into play as well. The U.S. provides functional missile defense and deterrence for Europe, but it seems that our European allies at the moment are unwilling to return the favor — for now.
So, either we make an airspace deal with Greenland — again, this could all be a part of the President’s art of the deal — and build the necessary bases and missile batteries with Greenland and Denmark’s cooperation, or we do it ourselves. Those seem to be the options: One way, or another, we’re expanding the missile defense shield into Greenland. And the President seems okay with that.
Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
