Republican senator calls Trump ‘irresponsible’ over Greenland threats

President’s threats to occupy Greenland sparked wave of condemnations from European allies, and drew exasperation from Congress NewsWorldAmericasUS politicsRepublican senator calls Trump ‘irresponsible’ over Greenland threatsPresident’s threats to occupy Greenland sparked wave of condemnations from European allies, and drew exasperation from CongressJohn Bowden in Washington, D.C. Sunday 15 February 2026 23:22 GMTBookmarkCommentsGo to commentsBookmark popoverRemoved from bookmarksClose popoverOnly Greenland and Denmark can decide its future, says Greenland PMYour support helps us to tell the storyRead moreSupport NowFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.Your support makes all the difference.Read moreA Republican senator who has become one of Donald Trump’s most frequent critics on the issue of foreign policy called his threats towards Greenland a mistake on Sunday.Sen. Thom Tillis told CBS News that the president was “irresponsible” for seeking anything beyond a reaffirmation of previous agreements giving the U.S. the ability to project naval power across the arctic.“The reality is, to me, it was irresponsible to go anywhere other than figuring out how we modernize the 1951 Agreement, where Greenland and Denmark agreed to more or less give us unfettered access in Greenland to project power in the Arctic,” said the senator.Tillis appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation for an interview on Sunday with Ed O’Keefe. During the interview, he blamed both the president and European leaders for using “hyperbolic language” to describe the situation with Greenland and NATO, in response to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declaring that the post-war liberal international order was “over” during a speech to the Munich Security Conference, where he declared that “this order, as flawed as it has been even in its heyday, no longer exists.”“Only if the chancellor allows it to [end],” Tillis responded.open image in gallerySen. Thom Tillis is a frequent critic of Trump on issues such as trade, foreign policy and immigration (Getty Images)The North Carolina senator experienced a falling-out with Trump in 2025 over passage of the Republican “Big, Beautiful Bill”. Since then, he has been one of Trump’s strongest critics from the right on the issue of support for Europe and the NATO alliance, as well as on other issues like his mass deportation operation headed up by Kristi Noem and Tom Homan.On Sunday he asserted that the U.S. and its European allies could reach a friendlier dynamic around the issue of NATO and Greenland if NATO countries acknowledged that the years of not making a 2% GDP benchmark of defense spending was a mistake. That benchmark, not required until 2024 and only a loose guideline prior to 2014, is now being met by every country in the alliance according to NATO data.“If the NATO countries who came up short for decades would just admit that that was a mistake and then double, redouble their efforts, I think this goes away just like the hyperbolic language around Greenland,” said Tillis. “They’re not wrong to point out the deficiencies of the past.”“Let’s just have an honest discussion with family members, and get the family right,” Tillis said.open image in galleryDonald Trump walked back his threat to invade Greenland during a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)President Trump’s threats to Greenland resumed in January and quickly caused a political earthquake across the Atlantic. The president asserted to Norway’s prime minister in a letter that he was considering using force to take the territory as a result of being snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize. He later told reporters on Air Force One that “if we don’t take Greenland, Russia or China will. And I’m not letting that happen.”He added that the territory would become a U.S. possession “one way or another,” and refused to elaborate. In the days following, his aides Stephen Miller and Karoline Leavitt caused further alarm by refusing to rule out military force when questioned directly by journalists. The president also threatened to mount 10% flat import tariffs against the U.K. and other European nations until Greenland was formally traded to the United States.But he later backed down in a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, vowing that milita