Trump will do something with Greenland 'whether they like it or not'

Donald Trump said he's going to do 'something on Greenland, whether they like it or not.' 

The president was asked how much money could be offered to purchase the territory after Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly told lawmakers Trump's intention was to buy it.

Trump told reporters Friday that he's not 'talking money' with regard to Greenland yet but he may do so in the future.

'Right now we are going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not because if we don't do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland and we're not gonna' have Russia or China as a neighbor.' 

The president said that he would like to make a deal 'the easy way' to acquire Greenland.

'If we don't do it the easy way, we're going to do it the hard way,' Trump said, without explaining what the 'hard way' entailed.

He also added that he is 'a fan' of Denmark, just a day after Trump admitted that his own morality was the only limit to his global power. 

Denmark's ambassador, Jesper Møller Sørensen, and Jacob Isbosethsen, Greenland's chief representative to Washington, met on Thursday with White House National Security Council officials to discuss the renewed push by Trump to acquire Greenland, perhaps by military force.

The envoys have also held a series of meetings this week with American lawmakers as they look to enlist help in persuading Trump to back off his threat. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to meet next week with Danish officials.

Trump, in a New York Times interview published Thursday, said he has to possess the entirety of Greenland instead of just exercising a long-standing treaty that gives the United States wide latitude to use Greenland for military posts.

'I think that ownership gives you a thing that you can't do with, you're talking about a lease or a treaty. Ownership gives you things and elements that you can't get from just signing a document,' Trump told the newspaper.

The U.S. is party to a 1951 treaty that gives it broad rights to set up military bases there with the consent of Denmark and Greenland.

Meanwhile, Trump's vice president, JD Vance, told reporters that European leaders should 'take the president of the United States seriously' as he framed the issue as one of defense.

'What we're asking our European friends to do is take the security of that landmass more seriously, because if they're not, the United States is going to have to do something about it,' Vance said.

But the administration is starting to hear pushback from lawmakers, including some Republicans, about Trump's designs on the territory.

In a floor speech Thursday, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska warned that the rhetoric from some in the Trump administration is 'profoundly troubling.'

Trump wants to avoid using military force to acquire the Danish territory, Rubio told a secret meeting of lawmakers Thursday. 

His comments came in a briefing by top White House officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine, over the operation to capture Nicolas Maduro and the plans for Venezuela's future. 

Rubio made the statement after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer asked whether Trump planned to use the military in other parts of the globe, such as Mexico and Greenland, a source told the Journal. 

Denmark, a NATO member, last week requested talks with the US over Trump's renewed threats against Greenland after Maduro's capture. 

Tensions with the bloc ratcheted higher this morning when Trump attacked the alliance for not paying its fair share and relying on US defense. 

The President ripped into 'fans' of the post-WWII military alliance with a reminder that 'most weren't paying their bills' - just two percent of their GDP on defense, well short of the five percent target set last summer at the Hague.

'Until I came along,' Trump wrote on Wednesday morning. 'The USA was, foolishly, paying for them.'

'Russia and China have zero fear of NATO without the United States, and I doubt NATO would be there for us if we really needed them,' he added.

'We will always be there for NATO, even if they won't be there for us. The only nation that China and Russia fear and respect is the DJT-rebuilt USA.'

Europe is on edge after Trump threatened to seize Greenland following his capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro in the early hours of Saturday. 

Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen warned earlier this week that a US takeover would amount to the end of NATO. 

The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom joined her in a statement Tuesday reaffirming that the mineral-rich island, which guards the Arctic and North Atlantic approaches to North America, 'belongs to its people.'

The island of Greenland, 80 percent of which lies above the Arctic Circle, is home to about 56,000 mostly Inuit people.