How far will Trump go to seize Greenland?
Americast
BBC
4.2 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Few in Washington took Donald Trump seriously when he first floated the idea of the US acquiring Greenland during his first term as president. Even last year when JD Vance and Donald Trump Jr (the US president’s eldest son) made whistle stop visits to the semi-autonomous island, most observers viewed the trips as an example of the administration’s efforts to troll the international community.
But less than a week since Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro was seized, Donald Trump and the senior people around him, are now repeating US intentions to acquire Greenland and are not ruling out using the military. Although Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly says the plan is to buy the island from Denmark.
In this episode of Americast, Anthony and Sarah look at why the Trump administration is intent on acquiring Greenland and who in the White House is the most influential in pushing for it. Is the US really prepared to risk the future of NATO over Greenland, and how credible is the president’s argument that the island is crucial to US national security?
HOSTS: • Sarah Smith, North America Editor • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent
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This episode was made by George Dabby with Alix Pickles and Grace Reeve. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | On Newscast, we are not in the business of telling you how to think. |
| 0:11.5 | We get the brightest minds from across the BBC to chat through the biggest stories. |
| 0:16.1 | You should leave feeling smarter about all the bonkers things in the news. |
| 0:19.7 | Listen to newscast every day on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:23.2 | When Donald Trump was talking about wanting to take over Greenland about a year ago, |
| 0:27.3 | it was widely treated as something of a joke. |
| 0:29.9 | But now it seems as though he might be genuinely serious |
| 0:33.3 | about wanting to incorporate it into the United States. |
| 0:36.9 | We're less than a week out now from the |
| 0:39.2 | seizure of the Venezuelan president, and we've got Donald Trump and some of his topades, |
| 0:44.3 | making it clear that they really are quite serious about wanting to take Greenland. |
| 0:48.5 | The United States should have Greenland as part of the United States. There's no need to even |
| 0:54.0 | think or talk about this in the |
| 0:55.5 | context that you're asking of a military operation. Nobody's going to fight the United States |
| 1:00.9 | militarily over the future of Greenland. So is there going to be a fight over the future of Greenland? |
| 1:06.7 | Why does Donald Trump so badly want to take it over? And just how far might he go to try and make that happen? |
| 1:12.7 | Welcome to AmeriCast. |
| 1:16.5 | AmeriCast from BBC News. |
| 1:19.5 | When Donald Trump calls, they say, yes, sir. |
| 1:21.8 | Right away, sir. |
| 1:22.9 | Happy to lick your boot, sir. |
... |
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