John Bolton, former national security adviser to President-elect Trump, said Trump's reluctance to remove military forces from Greenland was a sign that China was trying to legitimize its expansionist vision. He said it could strengthen the positions of Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin.
in Interview with CNN's Caitlan Collins Bolton said Tuesday night that he was concerned that “Mr. Trump's language could have further repercussions given his comments today that he has refused to rule out the use of force.”
“That's exactly the same position that Xi Jinping has toward Taiwan. So it was easy to imagine Xi Jinping saying, “I fully understand that Greenland is close to the United States.'' Taiwan is near us. President Trump will not rule out the use of force against Greenland. That's exactly our position. We have no intention of excluding Taiwan either.”
Bolton said President Putin, who ordered Russia's invasion of Ukraine about three years ago, may point to President Trump's comments as justifying his actions.
“Or President Vladimir Putin might say, 'Look, I certainly understand that. Ukraine is critical to national security. We're using force. And frankly I mean, if the United States were to invade Greenland, where, by the way, there are still American troops present, I, Vladimir Putin, would not oppose it.
“This shows once again that Mr. Trump does not understand the broader context of his comments and the detrimental impact this is currently having across NATO,” Bolton said.
At a press conference Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump said that he has recently targeted not only Greenland but also the Panama Canal and the Panama Canal as a potential U.S. expansion, and that he has threatened to use the military in those efforts. I was asked if I intended to exclude them.
“I'm not going to commit to that. We might have to do something,” Trump said.
Bolton said he believed it was “not unreasonable” to pursue closer ties with Greenland, but that it would put Denmark's leaders, who control Greenland and the self-governing island, in a corner. He suggested that President Trump's approach was not strategically sound.
“This makes it difficult to consider alternative solutions; there is a real lack of situational awareness,” he says.
“There's a lot of ways to solve it. We want to look at something pretty broad. I think Greenland is part of the North American continent,” Bolton later added. “And I don't think it's unreasonable to say that a closer political relationship with the United States makes sense.”
Bolton also noted that the United States has occupied the island before. Before Pearl Harbor, when Denmark fell to the Nazis, Greenland's local government “invited the United States because they feared it would be taken over by Canada or Norway,” Bolton said.
“After what Donald Trump said,” he continued. “I think it's very unlikely that the current local government in Greenland would do that.”
