U.S. Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Hoover) agrees with President Donald Trump that what happens in the territory of Greenland also impacts American national security.
Trump has been pushing for the U.S. to acquire Greenland and has even announced tariffs on European allies who oppose his position on Greenland, which is currently an autonomous part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
Palmer, who is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, doesn’t believe the U.S. would take over Greenland by force — but admitted he’s worried about China’s influence in the region.
“Well, I really don’t think we want to take over Greenland, but at same time, we can’t let China come in and take it, and they will,” Palmer said Tuesday on FM Talk 106.5. “They’ll buy their way into it. That’s what they’ve done in South America.”
The congressman said he’s concerned about Russia and China’s efforts to control part of the Arctic.
“There’s no way Denmark can hold off China,” Palmer argued. “China’s not going to invade that to just resist their will. So that’s what we’re trying to do is, is protect our own region from further encouragement by the Chinese and the Russians. For that matter, Russia does have a legitimate claim, because they are in the Arctic nation.”
Denmark has up until this point rebuffed any efforts by the Trump administration to purchase or acquire the island.
Palmer believes Trump’s stance on Greenland is not just about having more of a military presence in the area, but also about being able to have access to rare earth minerals and other natural resources.
“They’re up there exploring and probing, and we don’t know what all is in Greenland, but we do know that we’re at a national security emergency in regard to supply chain of refined rare earth elements,” he explained. “I’ve been working on this for five years…and when Trump came in, it was a sea change and attitude about this. Biden did nothing to secure our supply chain, and our economy would absolutely collapse if China cut us off, and they were threatening to do that starting December 1 of last year.”
“There’s just so there’s just so much going on that the Trump administration is doing that that has a tremendous impact on your future, my future, everybody listening to you that most people don’t even know about,” he added.
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on X @Yaffee
