U.S. Congress Sidesteps Greenland Debate in Defense Spending Bill
Lawmakers opted against using the power of the purse to forbid forcible annexation of Greenland.
Faced with U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalating threats of a hostile takeover of Greenland, Congress appears likely to continue sidelining itself after demurring from using a must-pass defense spending bill to set down firm markers about what is and isn’t allowable when it comes to using U.S. military force to annex the semi-autonomous Danish territory.
The text of the final package of fiscal 2026 spending bills, which includes the all-important defense spending measure, did not include any mention of NATO or Greenland when it was released Tuesday by senior Republican and Democratic negotiators from the House and Senate.
Specifically, the legislation contained no prohibition on the use of federal funds to attack a NATO ally, as Trump repeatedly seemed to threaten to do this month with regards to Denmark, in addition to threatening tariffs against European countries that oppose his push to acquire Greenland.
Instead, the defense spending measure’s accompanying joint explanatory statement, which explains the results of bill negotiations between the House and Senate, includes a brief section on “ironclad” congressional support for NATO.
“The agreement supports NATO’s renewed focus to increase the levels of military investment by each member state, most recently the June 2025 summit at The Hague. … These achievements will continue to ensure that it remains the most important and effective military alliance in history,” the statement reads. The “agreement underscores Congress’ ironclad support for NATO and all its thirty-two member states.”
That bland affirmation for NATO was touted by Senate Democrats in their summary of the bill, while House Republicans skipped any mention of NATO or Greenland in their own summary.
But even as many congressional Republicans want to elide discussion of Trump’s threats against a NATO ally, the U.S. president continued to keep his personal fixation with seizing Greenland front and center on the global stage with a high-profile Wednesday speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“We need it for strategic national security and international security. This enormous unsecured island is actually part of North America, on the northern frontier of the Western Hemisphere,” Trump said in his remarks, where he also criticized at length the decision by Washington to return Greenland to Copenhagen’s control after World War II. After Denmark fell to Nazi Germany, the United States took control of Greenland to prevent the Nazis from seizing it.
“That’s our territory. It is therefore a core national security interest of the United States of America, and in fact, it’s been our policy for hundreds of years to prevent outside threats from entering our hemisphere,” Trump said.
Notably, Trump appeared to take the threat of military force to acquire Greenland off the table, saying “people thought I would use force. But I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”
Even so, the lack of any handcuffs in the latest defense legislation on Trump’s ability to use the military to seize Greenland is striking for the fact that multiple strong Republican critics of his Greenland policy are top congressional appropriators. They include former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Sen. John Kennedy, and House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole.
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In Davos, a Tale of Two Speeches
Trump follows Greenland threats by announcing a “future deal,” while Canada’s prime minister describes it all as a “rupture in the world order.”
Trump’s insistence on annexing Greenland and Europe’s reaction to the threat to the territorial sovereignty of one of its Nordic members have dominated headlines in the last week as the U.S. leader’s rationale for seizing the Arctic territory has changed on a near-daily basis. The U.S. president has pushed dubious arguments about the need to better defend Greenland against potential aggression by China or Russia. He has also justified his push on a desire to acquire Greenland’s critical minerals to benefit the United States and on his wounded pride over being passed over by Norwegian judges in their awarding of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
It is still possible that U.S. lawmakers, particularly in the Senate, will use the amendment process to try to secure floor votes on Trump’s ability to use the military or other measures short of force to seize Greenland. Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego has already introduced such an amendment.
But on other NATO and Ukraine-related matters, lawmakers were more willing to go against the administration’s wishes.
The legislation provides $400 million in annual security assistance for Ukraine, the same amount authorized by the recent fiscal 2026 defense authorization law, Democrats noted.
It also appropriates $200 million for the Baltic Security Initiative, which Congress established in 2020 to direct Defense Department security cooperation with Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The Trump administration had proposed eliminating funding for the Baltic initiative. And the bill provides roughly $48.5 million above the administration’s request to support U.S. European Command’s “efforts to expand cooperation with allies and partners,” according to the explanatory statement.
Federal funding runs out on Jan. 30, giving lawmakers a short window to clear the remaining fiscal 2026 spending bills, which also include a funding measure for the State Department and related foreign assistance programs.
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