People shocked by Trump's 'poor excuse' as to why US needs to take over Greenland

Donald Trump's reasoning for wanting Greenland to become part of the US has been vastly criticized online.

While it hasn’t been spoken about in recent weeks, Trump has previously insisted the US needs to take complete control over Greenland and intends to eventually make it a part of the country.

Despite both the Danish and the Greenlandic government insisting that Greenland is not up for sale, the president has repeatedly argued that it needs to happen, going as far as to claim it would be in everyone’s best interest.

In a new interview, Trump was asked by a reporter whether he still intended to take Greenland, following the appointment of Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as Special Envoy to Greenland.

He insisted that Landry called him about the role rather than the other way around.

Donald Trump has appointed Governor Jeff Landry as the Special Envoy to Greenland (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Trump said: “He is a great guy, he is a deal maker type guy, and we need [Greenland] for national protection.

“They have a very small population and I don’t know, they say Denmark has spent no money there, they have no military protection.

“They say Denmark was there 300 years ago or something with a boat and we were there with boats too, I’m sure. So we’ll have to work it all out.

“We need Greenland for national security, not for minerals, we have so many sights for minerals and oil and everything. We have more oil than any other country in the world. We need Greenland for national security.”

The post, which has been shared widely on X, has also been accompanied by a community note disagreeing with Trump’s point.

It read: “There are no historical records of US citizens visiting Greenland by boat 300 years ago. The US didn't exist until 1776, and 18th-century expeditions to Greenland were mainly by Danes, Norwegians, and other Europeans. American involvement began in the 19th century.”

More to the point, people took issue with the argument that Greenland must become a part of the US for national security, as they pointed out that the US already has a military base within the country, the Pituffik Space Base.

Trump's argument hasn't gone down well on social media (The White House)

One social media user commented: “'National security' is such a poor excuse. It seems Trump is unaware, or has forgotten, that the US already has a base in Greenland that does exactly this. For several decades even. Even if the US would need to expand their activities, request it, but no US ownership is needed.”

A second claimed: “'We need [it] for national protection' was Putin’s oft-stated rationale for invading Ukraine.”

Someone else agreed: “What Trump is planning to do in Greenland is the same as Putin has done in Ukraine.”

And another simply wrote: “Trump says so many dumb things that listening to him feels like reverse education.”

UNILAD has contacted the White House for comment.