There may have once been a narrow avenue for a serious conversation between the United States and Greenland about some form of relationship.
Perhaps it could have taken the shape of a compact of free association or a new security and economic framework reflecting the realities of the Arctic in the 21st century. However, that door has long since slammed shut.
Whatever opportunity existed has been squandered by an obsessive fixation on “owning” Greenland, as if it were a distressed property listed on Zillow rather than a territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.
At no point has there appeared to be a real strategy. What initially looked like a joke or an online troll quickly metastasized into something far more damaging: a persistent signal to allies that the U.S. no longer understands the difference between power and petulance. You cannot browbeat partners into cooperation by floating ideas that insult their sovereignty.
The damage is not hypothetical.
This episode has seriously strained relations with key U.S. allies, particularly NATO allies. And not just the perennial deadweights who fail to meet NATO’s defense spending targets. Real allies are questioning their relationship with America. The United Kingdom, long considered Washington’s most reliable partner, is increasingly uneasy. Other European capitals are reassessing what their relationship with the U.S. will actually mean moving forward.
I just returned from Finland after attending MATKA, a major Nordic regional travel and tourism show. Greenland was the elephant in the room that nobody wanted to talk about because everyone was thinking about it.
Between the semiquincentennial, the World Cup, and the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, the U.S. should be selling itself. Instead, the mood at MATKA was unmistakable: nobody wants to visit America. Literally nobody. Tourism is often dismissed, but soft power matters. Right now, America is hemorrhaging it.
This should alarm Republicans.
The cleanup will not end when the 2028 presidential campaign begins in earnest or when President Donald Trump leaves office in three years. Republicans are going to inherit the consequences of this behavior for years, if not decades.
Credibility once lost is not easily restored. The next Republican president will not be starting from a position of trust. Instead, he will be greeted with folded arms and raised eyebrows.
Who abroad is going to take Republicans seriously again when they talk about alliances, shared values, or long-term commitments? Why should anyone believe them?
Some on the Right have shrugged this off. Maybe we do not need Spain. Maybe we do not need the U.K., and maybe we do not need Canada. This bravado sounds tough on TV, but it collapses under any scrutiny. The U.S. does not operate in a vacuum. We live in a dangerous world populated by dangerous and rogue actors who are more than happy to exploit fractures within the West.
There will come a time when the U.S. needs help from its friends and allies. It might be a military contingency, an intelligence-sharing crisis, or another conflict, near or far. When that moment arrives, alliances, access, and trust will matter.
And trust is precisely what this Greenland fixation has eroded. It also reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of how influence works.
If the U.S. wants a stronger presence in the Arctic, there are ways to pursue that goal: investment, diplomacy, scientific cooperation, security agreements, and respectful engagement with the Danish realm. This slow and often frustrating process is how diplomacy and statecraft work.
Republicans should be particularly concerned because they are the ones who claim to believe in realism, prudence, and American leadership grounded in strength. Ending this nonsense is not about appeasing Europeans or caving to criticism. It is about recognizing that American power is maximized when it is exercised with discipline and purpose.
TRUMP’S UNNECESSARY GREENLAND THREATS UNDERMINE US INTERESTS
Enough is enough.
The Greenland distraction has outlived whatever fleeting political utility it once had. It has harmed U.S. economic and national security interests, embarrassed allies, and weakened alliances that keep America secure. If Republicans want to govern again, they need to say so clearly and move on.
Dennis Lennox is a public affairs consultant and Republican political commentator from Michigan. Follow @dennislennox on X.