JD Vance and Marco Rubio reject requests from Denmark and Greenland to curb Trump's rhetoric on the island

The Hill media outlet revealed Wednesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance rejected requests from the governments of Denmark and Greenland for the president's administration Donald Trump to drop his rhetoric about a possible takeover of Danish territory, during a high-profile meeting at the White House. The Republican leader has made the Greenland takeover one of his top priorities and has not ruled out the use of military force.

While the words that administration officials reportedly directed at Danish and Greenlandic politicians during the meeting, including Danish Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen, were not detailed, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Rasmussen said after the meeting that the two sides confirmed their "fundamental disagreement" on the issue.

Hours before the meeting, Trump reinforced his position by writing on his Truth Social account that any solution that does not involve U.S. control of the territory would be "unacceptable." However, both Denmark and Greenland flatly rejected the idea of becoming part of the United States. Both governments noted that, while they were willing to maintain dialogue with Washington to address security concerns, Greenland would not be U.S. territory.

"We have decided to form a high-level working group to explore whether we can find a common way forward. The group, from our point of view, should focus on how to address U.S. security concerns while respecting the red lines of the Kingdom of Denmark," Rasmussen told reporters outside the Danish embassy in Washington.

For her part, Greenland's foreign minister, Vivian Motzfeldt, assured that her government seeks to find the "right path" and strengthen security cooperation with the United States, without coming under its control. "That doesn't mean we want to be owned by the United States. But as allies, strengthening our cooperation is what we are interested in," he said.