As 2026 got underway, there was reason for cautious optimism about Donald Trump’s obsession with acquiring Greenland. On Jan. 21, the American president announced that he’d agreed to “a framework” with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on the future of Greenland, which was apparently designed to satisfy the Republican’s demands.

A day later, in an interview with Fox Business, Trump suggested it was unlikely the United States would actually take ownership of the Arctic island — a priority that he’d said in recent days was paramount — though he emphasized that he expected the deal to provide U.S. officials with greater “access” to Greenland. (The fact that we already had ample access was a detail that apparently eluded him.)

There were plenty of questions at the time about the relevant details of the agreement, none of which the president was prepared to address, and about whether Trump would reverse course and renew his crusade to annex the island.

Nearly six months later, Trump has reversed course and renewed his crusade to annex the island. CNBC reported:

President Donald Trump on Tuesday resurrected his push for the U.S. to acquire Greenland, and suggested the U.S. could pull all of its armed services members out of Europe in response to the Continent’s continued pushback on the issue.

The island territory “should be controlled by the United States,” Trump said shortly after he arrived in Ankara, Turkey, for a NATO summit.

As part of his comments on Tuesday, the American president not only said the U.S. should control Greenland, he added that NATO’s reluctance to simply give him the island he wants “hurt” his relationship with the alliance.

A day later, Trump kept going, insisting that he considers it “a big problem” that he hasn’t been able to acquire Greenland, followed by a fresh round of whining about NATO members not giving him what he wants.

For good measure, the Republican added, “We took Greenland and then, stupidly, we gave it back. We shouldn’t have given it back to them, because we’re the ones that need it. We need it for protection of the world, not just the United States. And it’s very important.”

Why does all of this matter? For one thing, Trump’s nonsense suggests the “framework” announced in January is effectively meaningless. For another, it set off a new international incident of sorts, as European leaders scrambled to make clear that the U.S. needs to leave Greenland alone.

“We are ready to defend every inch of NATO, including our own territory,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters. “One of the reasons why we built NATO many, many years ago is if anything happens to one of us then everybody should stand up for each other.”

Just as notable is that Trump’s focus on Greenland had already done significant harm to U.S. diplomacy and our international standing. For the Republican to renew his obsession for no reason does fresh harm to his own country in exchange for … nothing.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

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