Pentagon hasn’t been asked to plan Greenland invasion amid Trump threats

President Trump has repeatedly raised the possibility of U.S. military forces seizing Greenland if Denmark does not agree to sell it, but so far the Pentagon has not been directed to plan for an invasion.

When asked at a lengthy White House news conference on Tuesday how far he was willing to go to acquire Greenland, Mr. Trump said, “You’ll find out.” He previously said he intended to acquire the island “whether they like it or not” and warned “if we don’t do it the easy way, we’re going to do it the hard way.”

In a Sunday morning interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,”

While Pentagon officials plan for all sorts of military contingencies, they have not yet been asked to plan for an invasion of Greenland or the aftermath of such an operation, the U.S. officials said on Tuesday. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.

But Pentagon officials and senior commanders privately express dismay and exasperation that Mr. Trump continues to hold out the option of military force to grab Greenland. It is a territory of Denmark, a small but trusted NATO ally whose troops fought and died alongside American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. An attack on Greenland would be an attack on a NATO ally, threatening the alliance that has held the West together since World War II.