A bipartisan group of lawmakers from Capitol Hill sought to reassure Denmark and Greenland on Friday that they supported Denmark’s control of Greenland despite President Trump’s vow to seize it “one way or another.’’ But there appeared to be little progress in solving what has become a crisis in Denmark and Europe more broadly.
Even as the delegation was meeting with Danish officials, Mr. Trump said at an event in Washington that he was considering using tariffs to pressure countries to accept the U.S. annexation of the semiautonomous territory some 2,000 miles from Copenhagen.
Senator Chris Coons, the Delaware Democrat who led the delegation, said in a news conference after a meeting with Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, that the United States was grateful to Denmark for being “a good and trusted ally and partner’’ and for the sacrifice of Danish soldiers who “served and fought and died alongside Americans’’ in the wars after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
His comments were in sharp contrast to those of Vice President JD Vance, who said last year that Denmark was “not being a good ally” for what he said was an insufficient military presence on Greenland.
Although Mr. Coons said he would support legislation to limit Mr. Trump’s powers to act unilaterally on Greenland, he said the purpose of the trip was to listen to colleagues from Denmark and Greenland, discuss ways to develop the island’s resources and “lower the temperature.’’ Among those in the delegation were Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, both Republicans, and Representative Steny Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland.
