Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, backed President Donald Trump's push to acquire Greenland, calling the move "overwhelmingly" in the national interest.
"When it comes to Greenland, I want to commend President Trump for being single-mindedly focused on America First, on U.S. economic interests, and U.S. national security interests," Cruz said, The Hill reported.
"I believe it is overwhelmingly in America's national interest to acquire Greenland," he added in the interview on Fox News on Sunday.
Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric on annexing Greenland from Denmark's home rule for U.S. and NATO security interests, vowing escalating tariffs on trade with the eight NATO allies participating in the Operation Arctic Endurance military exercise.
Trump said Saturday he would impose 10% tariffs on NATO allies Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the U.K., and Finland starting Feb. 1, increasing them to 25% by June 1, in response to their opposition to U.S. control of Greenland.
"Greenland has massive rare earth minerals and critical minerals. There are enormous economic benefits to America, but like Alaska, it is located on the Arctic, which is a major theater for major military conflict with either Russia or China," Cruz said.
Cruz likened the potential acquisition of Greenland to landmark U.S. expansions into Alaska and with the Louisiana Purchase, echoing a comparison raised last week by Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.
"Look, the whole history of America has been a history of acquiring new lands and new territories, whether you go back to Thomas Jefferson making the Louisiana Purchase — about half of the United States of America today — or you go back to America purchasing Alaska from Russia. You want to talk about — at the time they called it Seward's Folly — it turned out to be an extraordinarily consequential purchase," Cruz said.
Fetterman last week wrote Greenland "has massive strategic benefits for the United States."
"Ideally, we purchase it — similar to our purchases of Alaska or the Louisiana Purchase. Acquiring Greenland is a many decades old conversation," he posted on X.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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