Republican Rebukes Trump Over ‘Foolish' Greenland Comments at NATO

A Republican congressman who previously suggested President Donald Trump could face impeachment over any attempt to invade Greenland is again breaking with the president, this time over remarks Trump made during this week’s NATO summit that reignited tensions with European allies.

Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, one of the GOP’s most frequent critics of Trump’s foreign policy rhetoric, accused the president of damaging U.S. relationships with European allies after Trump used the NATO gathering in Turkey to renew his argument that Greenland should come under U.S. control.

In a post on X, Bacon wrote: “The President’s foolish comments on Greenland hurt us in Europe tremendously. Greenland and Denmark are NATO allies. Denmark fought by our side in Afghanistan. Trump’s threats have greatly weakened the trust Europeans have had towards U.S. since post World War 2. Stop the stupid.”

The latest rebuke comes months after Bacon warned that he would “lean” toward impeachment if Trump ever followed through on past suggestions of using military force to acquire Greenland, calling such a move "utter buffoonery." The congressman, who is not seeking reelection in 2026 and will leave office in January 2027, has become one of the most outspoken Republican opponents of Trump’s Greenland push.

Newsweek reached out to the White House on Thursday morning for comment.

NATO Summit Fallout

Trump reopened the Greenland debate shortly after arriving in Turkey for the NATO summit this week, arguing during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that the Arctic island “should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark.”

“Greenland doesn’t help Denmark,” Trump said. “That’s an important part for the United States.”

Trump also invoked World War II while defending his position. Referring to the period after Nazi Germany occupied Denmark in 1940, Trump argued that the United States had effectively assumed responsibility for Greenland and should never have relinquished that role.

“We took Greenland and then stupidly we gave it back. We shouldn’t have given it back to them because we’re the ones that need it,” Trump said. “We need it for the protection of the world-not just the United States.”

He added that Denmark had been defeated by the Nazis “in less than a day” and said, “We had it, and we were protecting it. Then we gave it back. I don’t know why, and I wouldn’t have done it.”

The president also suggested that Europe’s resistance to the idea had strained relations with Washington.

“We could remove all of our soldiers out of Europe,” Trump said. “Because as you probably noticed, Europe’s a very different place than it was 20 years ago.”

Trump later acknowledged that the issue was “what hurt my relationship with NATO.”

The president has repeatedly argued that American control of Greenland is needed to counter Russia and China in the Arctic and protect strategic shipping and military routes.

Europe Pushes Back

The comments drew immediate responses from European leaders.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen reiterated that Greenland is not for sale and rejected any suggestion that the territory’s future could be decided by another country.

“It is a well-known position of the United States that it wants to own and take over Greenland,” Frederiksen said. “I hope that it is equally well known everywhere that this is not going to happen.”

Frederiksen was not the only European leader to push back. Greenlandic officials said the island’s future would be determined by Greenlanders themselves, and Denmark and Greenland have repeatedly rejected suggestions that the territory’s status is open for negotiation.

Denmark and the United States are NATO members, meaning an attack on one ally is generally treated as an attack on all under Article 5 of the alliance’s treaty.

Bacon’s Long-Running Criticism

Bacon has spent months warning that Trump’s rhetoric risks undermining U.S. alliances.

“There are so many Republicans mad about this,” Bacon told the Omaha World-Herald in January. “If he went through with the threats, I think it would be the end of his presidency.”

“It’s just the worst idea ever in my view,” Bacon said of invading Greenland.

He later described the Greenland push as “immoral” and argued that Washington already enjoys the security cooperation it needs from Denmark and Greenland.

Bacon has often walked a delicate line with Trump. While he supported many administration policies and voted against Trump’s impeachments during his first term, he has repeatedly criticized the president on issues ranging from Ukraine and NATO to relations with traditional allies. As a moderate Republican representing a competitive district, Bacon frequently found himself at odds with parts of the GOP base before announcing he would not run for reelection.

Bipartisan Alarm

“I don’t see military action being an option there,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said earlier this year.

Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota similarly stated that using force in Greenland was not “a viable option.”

Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, warned that any effort to take Greenland by force would damage U.S. national security and international relationships, while Representative Blake Moore, a Utah Republican, argued that threatening annexation unnecessarily undermined cooperation with Denmark.

Senator Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, also questioned the proposal, saying he had yet to hear what the United States needs from Greenland that it cannot already obtain through existing alliances and agreements.

Democrats have likewise argued that Trump’s comments risk damaging relations between the United States and its European allies. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, who has previously led bipartisan congressional delegations to Denmark amid tensions over Greenland, said concerns over Trump’s rhetoric had become serious enough that lawmakers felt compelled to reassure Danish and Greenlandic officials.

“When the most powerful military nation on Earth threatens your territory through its president over and over and over again, you start to take it seriously,” Coons told the Associated Press while discussing congressional efforts to “bring the temperature down” between Washington and Copenhagen.

Why Greenland Matters

The world’s largest island sits at the center of growing competition in the Arctic.

Greenland is strategically located between North America and Europe and plays a critical role in monitoring activity across the North Atlantic. The U.S. already operates Pituffik Space Base in Greenland under agreements with Denmark and uses the facility for missile-warning, missile-defense and space-surveillance missions.

The island is also rich in rare-earth minerals that have become increasingly important to global technology supply chains.

Security analysts broadly agree that Greenland’s strategic importance has increased as Russia expands Arctic military infrastructure and China pursues greater influence in the region. However, many experts argue that Washington already has access to Greenland’s key facilities through its long-standing alliance with Denmark and does not need sovereignty over the territory to achieve its security goals.

For Bacon, the concern is less about Greenland’s value than the diplomatic costs of Trump’s rhetoric.

His latest criticism suggests that, even with only months remaining in Congress, he is continuing to publicly challenge a president whose comments about Greenland have become one of the most contentious foreign-policy disputes between Washington and its NATO allies.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Steve Mollman and Dave Siminoff.

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This story was originally published July 9, 2026 at 2:12 PM.