Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk appeared to throw shade at President Donald Trump on Thursday.
Following the recent U.S. military operation in Venezuela, Trump has set his sights on acquiring Greenland, arguing that the autonomous territory — which falls under the boundaries of Denmark, a member of NATO — is vital to U.S. national security. He has maintained that the United States must own the Arctic island to deter Russia or China from occupying it in the future.
A top Danish official said there is a “fundamental disagreement” with Trump over Greenland after meeting with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House on Wednesday. Several European countries — including France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom — have also either sent troops to the territory or have pledged to take action in the coming days to begin military exercises in a show of support for Denmark.
Tusk announced Thursday that Poland will not participate in sending soldiers to Greenland, but remained critical of how a takeover would impact the NATO alliance. He argued that an attempt to acquire a NATO member state by another NATO member state would be a political “disaster,” according to Reuters, which translated his remarks.
“It would be the end of the world as we know it, which guaranteed a world based on NATO solidarity, which held back the evil forces associated with communist terror or other forms of aggression,” Tusk said during a press conference.
Trump, meanwhile, has maintained that NATO should be helping the United States obtain Greenland, which holds untapped reserves of critical minerals — all while Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that any attempt to secure Greenland by force would “mean the end of the NATO alliance.”
“I’m the one who SAVED NATO!!!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform Monday.
While the White House has not ruled out using military force, Rubio said last week that the United States is interested in potentially purchasing the island, despite officials there saying it is not for sale. A poll from last year found that most Greenlanders, too, do not want to become a part of the country.
“We face a geopolitical crisis, and if we have to choose between the U.S. and Denmark here and now, then we choose Denmark,” Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told reporters in Copenhagen on Tuesday.
Trump later responded that he disagrees with the assessment, adding, “That’s going to be a big problem for him.”
