President Donald Trump wants to be credited with saving the defense alliance he’s been threatening to destroy as he seeks to acquire Greenland at any cost.
After bragging to reporters on Sunday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization wouldn’t exist if he weren’t president, Trump promptly took to social media on Monday to repeat his claim in MAGA speak—using all-caps and excessive exclamation points.
“I’m the one who SAVED NATO!!! President DJT,” he wrote at about 8 a.m. Washington time on Truth Social.
The post came less than 24 hours after Trump first tried to sell reporters aboard Air Force One on the idea that he “saved NATO” by pressuring member states to commit to spending 5 percent of their GDP on defense by 2025, up from the current 2 percent.
“You wouldn’t have NATO if I weren’t president,” he said.
In a bizarre twist, his claim came in response to a reporter asking if he was worried that his push to “acquire” the Danish-held territory “one way or the other” could mark the end of the 76-year-old military alliance.
The president has repeatedly offered to buy Greenland, which both Greenland and Denmark say isn’t for sale, and threatened to take the island by force if a deal can’t be reached.
“If we don’t take Greenland, Russia or China will, and I’m not letting that happen,” he said Sunday.
Given that Denmark is a founding member of NATO, invading Greenland would effectively destroy the alliance, which is based on a principle of mutual defense that treats an attack on one member as an attack on all.
Trump, however, refused to engage seriously with that possibility during his back-and-forth with reporters, insisting that, “With respect to NATO, we have a very good relationship.”
“I like NATO, you know,” he said. “I just wonder whether or not, if we needed NATO, would they be there for us?”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
European officials have been scrambling to figure out how to respond to a newly emboldened Trump, who doubled down on his claims to Greenland following the administration’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Politico reported.
They’ve been trying to walk a fine line between reassuring the famously mercurial president while still defending Greenland’s sovereignty.
Seven European leaders issued a carefully worded joint statement last week that pointed to their increased presence in the Arctic, reminded the U.S. of its security agreement with Denmark, and reaffirmed Greenland and Denmark’s sovereignty.
NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte, meanwhile, has continued his strategy of trying to flatter Trump into submission, The Guardian reported.
“I believe that Donald Trump is doing the right things for NATO by encouraging us all to spend more,” he said, while pointedly not addressing specific questions about Trump’s statements on Greenland.
The NATO alliance has been rocked by various internal disagreements, from the Suez affair of 1956 to the Iraq War in 2003, but never has it been on the brink of collapse over one member threatening to invade another—until now.
