Since winning the presidential election in November, Donald Trump has been laying the roadwork for what he wants to do in his second term. While most things he has said align with the views of the Republican party, such as tax cuts and more focus put on the border,  one of his claims has taken the political world by storm and has shocked people on both sides of the aisle. Donald Trump wants to take over Greenland.

Trump explains that having military bases in Greenland would better suit America for intercepting attacks from foreign threats. Many argue that since the US and Denmark (owns Greenland as a territory) are allies there would be no problem with the US putting bases in the area without having to take over the country. What I find most alarming about Trump’s claim are his threats of using military force to take over the territory, which would be rather ironic given one of his promises during his campaign was to bring peace to the people of the US and not get us in any other conflicts.

If the US wanted to take over Greenland, they would have the military capabilities to do so, but a ground invasion would probably end the US’s involvement with NATO and an extreme loss of allies would occur. Countries like Canada may also go against the US and side with Denmark instead. Overall, the means far outweigh the ends in this situation.

Personally, I find it highly unlikely that anything of substance is going to occur between these two countries. It’s still important to note that this can very well happen, and it’s up to Trump to make that decision and potentially start a serious conflict.