US President Donald Trump speaks at the White House on January 9, 2026. Photo: screenshot of video posted on BBC

US President Donald Trump has doubled down on his threats to acquire Greenland, saying the US is "going to do something [there] whether they like it or not," The Guardian reported on Friday. A Chinese expert said that recent intensive statements and dispatched negotiations by the US are part of efforts to set the tone, test Europe's reactions, and lay out various options on the table.

Speaking at a meeting with oil and gas executives at the White House on Friday, local time, the US president said: "I would like to make a deal, you know, the easy way. But if we don't do it the easy way, we're going to do it the hard way," media reported.

Five political parties in Greenland's parliament issued a rare joint statement rejecting Trump's threats to take control of the Arctic island, according to Greenlandic national broadcaster KNR.

"We will not be Americans, we will not be Danes, we are Greenlanders," the leaders declared in a statement released on Friday night, local time.

Trump's latest comments come amid escalating tensions between the US and its NATO allies, including Denmark, over his administration's repeated attempts to take control of the Arctic territory. The Trump administration has said at least five times that it will take control Greenland after the US launched military strikes on Venezuela and captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife on January 3, according to preliminary statistics of media reports, the Global Times has found.

Trump's posture has been firmly rejected by Denmark and Greenland.

Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, warned on Monday that an American attack on Greenland, a Danish territory, would cause the end of NATO, according to The New York Times.

Meanwhile, Greenlanders have repeatedly expressed their refusal to be part of the US, with 85 percent of the population rejecting the idea, according to a 2025 poll, The Guardian reported.

Trump has long expressed interest in Greenland, first publicly floating the idea of acquiring the territory in 2019 during his first presidency.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he plans to meet with Danish officials next week to discuss the future of Greenland as European leaders push back against threats from the Trump administration to take the island, according to The New York Times.

However, comments of refusal and condemnation toward such an idea are abundant online from Americans and Europeans.

"If we coercively annex Greenland, we will lose access to bases and other intelligence assets in the Arctic region currently provided by our NATO allies. This idiotic idea does not enhance our security posture in that part of the world. It weakens it," a US netizen @McFaul said on X.

"Across the political spectrum, almost all Europeans support defending greenland against aggression. We will not back down," said a netizen going with the name Lee Humphrey.

Some netizens also said that it is unlikely that the Trump administration will take control of Greenland. "Not going to happen, it's just giving the Trump admin the respect of being listened to, something the Trump admin doesn't give to others," a netizen @midpath said.

The United States' taking Greenland by force would rip apart the central agreement that underpins the NATO military alliance, of which Denmark and the US are both founding members, The New York Times said.

Fox News commented that Trump has for years floated the US acquiring Greenland due to its strategic position between North America and Europe in the Arctic Circle, and he was pressed about revisiting such plans after the Venezuela operation.

Bringing Greenland under control would be a key step in what the US views as a "Western Hemisphere strategy". For Trump administration, this holds significant symbolic meaning, signifying the strengthening of US dominance in the Western Hemisphere, Cui Hongjian, a professor at the Academy of Regional and Global Governance at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told Global Times on Saturday.

Earlier, when asked to respond to Trump's reported claims that the US needs Greenland and one of the reasons he gave was because it is "covered with Chinese ships," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian on Monday urged the US to stop using the so-called "China threat" as a pretext for itself to seek selfish gains.

Denmark's Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has also rejected US President Donald Trump's such claims. "We do not share this image that Greenland is plastered with Chinese investments... nor that there are Chinese warships up and down along Greenland," he was quoted by Reuters as saying.

The US has repeatedly emphasized that it does not exclude force to demonstrate resolve and apply pressure, Cui explained.

Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland, seven European countries including France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, UK and Denmark issued a joint statement in response to US' threat.

Recent intensive statements and dispatched negotiations by the US are part of efforts to set the tone, test Europe's reactions, and lay out various options - whether political resolution, commercial purchase, or other approaches, the expert noted. If negotiations stall or fail to meet US objectives, Washington may gradually escalate pressure. This round remains one of testing and consultation, with the possibility of further pressure depending on developments, Cui said.

If military force were indeed employed, it would bring unpredictable shocks to Denmark, Europe, and the US itself, Cui said.