Trump Kicks Off NATO Meeting With Wild Threat to Seize Greenland

President Trump still wants to take control of Greenland, threatening to seize the country while speaking to reporters in Turkey Tuesday.

“That’s what hurt my relationship with NATO. Because Greenland doesn’t help Denmark, Denmark doesn’t spend money to really help Greenland, but it’s an important part for the United States. And it’s surrounded by China ships and Russian ships,” Trump said. “That should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark. And when NATO wouldn’t go along with it, and with all of the money we spend to help them with Russia, and we don’t have to spend any money. We could remove all of our soldiers out of Europe.”

Trump seemed to have forgotten about Greenland for the past few months after nearly setting off an international incident in January, with his rhetoric alarming NATO leaders so much that they deployed troops to the island in case Trump quickly decided to seize it by force.

The situation seemed to calm down after Trump met with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, later that month. Public opinion in Greenland and Denmark toward the U.S. has plummeted amid Trump’s desperate attempts to take over the territory, including bribing its residents. Trump’s latest bluster is not likely to help.

President Donald Trump just revealed how unseriously he takes national security.

During a joint press conference Tuesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara, Trump appeared dumbfounded when pressed about his terms for potentially selling F-35 fighter jets to Turkey despite a congressional ban.

A reporter asked Trump whether the sale of F-35 jets would require the country’s Russian-made S-400 missile defense system to be sold to a “third party.”

“Third party? What is the third—with respect to what?” Trump asked.

“There are concerns about the Russian missile defense system. Do you have those concerns about this system?” the reporter asked.

“I have no concerns at all about anything,” Trump replied.

“I mean,” he continued, “he’s a leader of a country that he’s made a much better country, a much more powerful country. You see it, I mean, it’s beautiful. You get off the roads are beautiful, it’s an amazing thing. No, I have no concerns with anything having to do with Turkey. The relationship, I would say the relationship with Turkey right now is better probably than it’s ever been. It was good in my first four years, but I think now it’s probably even better than that, if that’s possible.”

One can only imagine the right-wing reaction if former President Joe Biden had delivered such an unintelligible response.

Turkey was barred from America’s F-35 program in 2020 after it purchased an advanced missile defense system from Russia. The sale sparked concerns in Washington that Turkey would train the system on newly provided F-35 jets, allowing Russia to learn how to respond to U.S. military capabilities.

In order to move forward with the sale, Turkey could potentially hand off its missile defense system to a third party, one Trump administration official told The New York Times. But on Tuesday, Trump was evidently unbothered by Turkey’s Russian-made missile defense system, and even suggested he would lift sanctions preventing the sale of the F-35.

“We’re going to be taking the sanctions off,” Trump told reporters. “We don’t want to sanction friends.”

One little problem: The sanctions were put into law by Congress, so in order to approve the sale, Trump would have to convince lawmakers to back him up. The president is going to have to come up with a better argument than I don’t care about the Russian military threat because the roads in Turkey are so beautiful.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tried to take a swing at Democrats over Graham Platner’s latest controversy, only to whiff so hard that he ended up calling out Republicans in the process.

A damning new rape allegation emerged against Platner Monday evening, marring the Maine oyster farmer’s candidacy and prompting a slew of progressive lawmakers to revoke their endorsements of the Democratic firebrand.

It was a swing and a miss on Fox News shortly after the news broke, when McCarthy attempted to use the dark moment to back-pat the Republican Party by claiming that conservatives always turn away from a “very bad candidate.” But the attempted roast only highlighted just how ignorant the GOP is, considering the orange-toned sexual abuser currently sitting in the White House.

“The one thing I know about Republicans: When we had a very bad candidate and found out, we didn’t vote for that person. We walked away,” McCarthy told the network.

But that’s not what Republicans did in 2016 (or 2020, or 2024). By the time the presidential election rolled around that year, more than a dozen women had accused Trump of sexual misconduct, and a viral Access Hollywood tape had publicized Trump’s gross beliefs about consent in his own words. Nonetheless, conservatives across the country voted for him for president.

Years later, in 2023, Trump was found liable by a jury for sexually abusing columnist E. Jean Carroll. At the time, the judge in the case went out of his way to explain that Trump could be considered a rapist based on the common definition of the word.

Online commenters were quick to point out McCarthy’s blatant hypocrisy, flaming the former politico for his thoughtless comparison.

“You can grab ’em by the pussy,” wrote one X user, quoting Trump’s Access Hollywood hot mic moment.

“What the f***, man?” commented a self-identified Republican turned Democrat. “You literally voted for a pedo grapist and Jeffrey Epstein’s best friend!”

But even disregarding Trump, the Republican Party has a long history of fervently backing highly controversial candidates. In recent years, the party has put its weight behind Herschel Walker, the 2022 Georgia Senate candidate who faced alarming domestic violence allegations; and George Santos, the New York lawmaker who fabricated practically everything he shared about himself and was later ousted from Congress and sentenced to 87 months in prison for fraud. Trump prematurely commuted his sentence via an unprecedented presidential pardon.

The GOP also remained behind Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, who pleaded guilty to physically assaulting a journalist; Rick Scott, who was tied to a massive Medicaid and Medicare fraud scandal in the late 1990s; and former Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, despite a House Ethics investigation that found “substantial evidence” that Gaetz had violated House rules prohibiting “prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, acceptance of impermissible gifts, the provision of special favors and privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”

President Trump said in a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Tuesday that he plans to lift sanctions to allow the country to buy F-35 fighter jets. 

“We’re going to be taking the sanctions off, OK? I don’t want him to waste his time answering that question,” Trump said to reporters while gesturing to Erdoğan at a NATO summit in the country’s capital, Ankara.

The move would end a ban that was imposed on Turkey in Trump’s first term after the country accepted a Russian S-400 air and missile defense system against U.S. warnings. Congress passed the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act in 2017 to punish any country that does business with Russia’s defense and intelligence agencies, and reinforced that restriction in the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.  

That bill contains a prohibition on transferring the fighter jets to Turkey unless it “no longer possesses” the Russian missile system, its materials, or anything associated with it. Trump didn’t make clear whether the sanctions would be lifted only on Turkey, or on all countries that possess Russian military articles.

Regardless, Trump’s plan faces opposition from Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Last week, six Republican and four Democratic members of Congress wrote a letter to Trump opposing the sale of F-35s to Turkey. 

“With President Erdoğan’s continued aggression toward our greatest partners along with his troubling defense partnerships with our adversaries, it is not in the best interest of our country to sell them F-35s,” wrote Republican Representatives Mike Lawler, Nicole Malliotakis, Gus Bilirakis, Jeff Hurd, Max Miller, and Young Kim, in addition to Democratic Representatives Stephen Lynch, Gabe Amo, Jared Moskowitz, and Brad Sherman.

Israel also opposes the sale of F-35s to Turkey amid worsening ties with the country and Turkish criticism of Israel following its massacre of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News on Monday that he didn’t think Turkey should get the jets or F110 jet engines “because that’ll upset the power balance in the Middle East, which is ultimately guaranteed by Israeli air superiority, and also by, I think … America’s posture in the Middle East.”

Under Trump, the U.S. has already said it would allow the sale of F110 fighter jet engines to Turkey for use in developing its own fighter jet. The administration also wrapped up a lawsuit against Turkish bank Halkbank for failing to comply with U.S. sanctions against Iran, weakening punishments against the financial institution. Now it seems that Trump wants to appease the country and Erdoğan at the expense of U.S. national security. 

President Trump was on Truth Social at 12:58 a.m. on Tuesday morning demanding that Congress gift the military another $350 billion in defense spending in addition to passing his controversial SAVE America Act.

“The United States Military has never been stronger, or more powerful. No other Nation can do what we do (It’s not even close!). This year we set even more Historic Recruiting Records, months ahead of schedule. Morale has never been higher. Our Military’s unmatched POWER was on full display during our Celebration of 250 Years of American Independence and, like our Country, the WAR DEPARTMENT has never been ‘HOTTER,’” Trump wrote. “We need to keep it that way, which is why, when Congress returns, we must pass Reconciliation 3.0, with 350 Billion Dollars for Defense, plus THE SAVE AMERICA ACT!

“I am calling on House and Senate Leadership to make this their Number One Priority, and ensure that 350 Billion Dollars in Recon 3.0 moves out of the Budget Committee as soon as Congress is back in session. The SAVE AMERICA ACT, which everyone is asking for, paired with the full funding of our Great Department of War, can be passed very quickly, ensuring that the United States of America stays FREE for Generations to come.”

The only person, Democrat or Republican, “asking for” the SAVE America Act may be Speaker Mike Johnson. The blatant voter suppression bill still lacks the votes in the Senate, putting Trump’s third massive spending package of his second term in jeopardy. Trump had originally requested $67 billion for the Pentagon be added to the supplemental appropriations bill.

To add hundreds of billions more to that and force through voter ID requirements and mail-in ballot bans is a gargantuan task, regardless of how much the president posts.

The United States spent over $900 billion on defense last year alone.