‘Who Gives a S— Who is Greenland?’

YOU NEED TO KNOW

• Lindsey Graham offered a clear and chilling message to Europeans worried about Donald Trump’s vocal plans to take over Greenland.

• “Who gives a s— who owns Greenland? I don’t,” the South Carolina senator told POLITICO at the 2026 Munich Security Conference

• Graham’s message comes amid Trump’s quest for full “ownership” of Greenland, which has strained US relations with NATO allies

Senator Lindsey Graham dismissed concerns about President Donald Trump’s quest for full “ownership” of Greenland, including threats to acquire it by force.

Graham’s clear message came at POLITICO’s 2026 Munich Security Conference on Friday, Feb. 13, after reporter Jonathan Martin asked the 70-year-old South Carolina Republican if he had a message for Europeans in the audience “who are obviously nervous” about Trump’s controversial plans for NATO territory.

Graham, a Trump ally, first joked about Martin’s question. “Well, if you’re nervous, have a beer,” he said. “Go see a doctor. Stop being nervous.”

Graham then downplayed the President’s offer to take over the territory, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark — and which strained US relations with Denmark and other NATO allies.

Sharing his current message to “my European friends,” Graham said, “Greenland is behind us, but the goal is to get results.”

“Who gives a s— who owns Greenland? I don’t,” the senator continued. “So the point is that Greenland will be more strengthened because Donald Trump, once he feels that it is his brand or his purchase, will go big.”

Asked about Denmark’s relationship with the United States amid Trump’s vocal plans to seize control of Greenland, Graham said, “I think we’re good.”

“I think everyone is hugging and, you know, we live to fight another day,” he added.

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In a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Trump previously linked his loss of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to his desire to seize control of Greenland.

In his January letter to Støre, Trump urged the politician to give the United States “Complete and Total Control of Greenland,” despite the fact that Støre was not responsible for Trump’s Nobel loss, nor does he control Greenland’s fate.

“I have done more for NATO than any other person since its founding, and now, NATO must do something for the United States,” Trump wrote in the letter.

He later doubled down on his Greenland plans in a Social Truth post the same day, writing, “NATO has been telling Denmark, for 20 years, that ‘you must remove the Russian threat from Greenland.’ Unfortunately, Denmark couldn’t do anything about it. Now is the time, and it will be done!!! President Donald J. Trump.”

In a January interview with The New York TimesTrump said his desire to own Greenland is “psychologically important” to him.

Anyway, the journalists asked why he won’t just send more American troops to Greenland if his goal was, as he stated before, to ward off foreign threats from China and Russia.

After Trump told the outlet that ownership of NATO territory is “what I feel is psychologically necessary for success,” the Times’ White House correspondent Katie Rogers — whom Trump recently called “ugly, both inside and out” for writing a story about his age — asked him to clarify, “Is it psychologically important to you or to the United States?”

“Psychologically important to me,” Trump replied to Rogers. “Now, maybe another president will feel differently, but so far I’ve been right about everything.”

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