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Mitch McConnell rails against Trump over Greenland in Senate floor diatribe

January 15, 2026 | | Print Article

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell managed to stay standing on the Senate floor, where he ripped into President Donald Trump over the administration’s efforts to annex Greenland.

The geriatric Republican from Kentucky, who serves as the chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, claimed any move by the U.S. to take over Greenland would be “disastrous”  and amount to an “unprecedented act of self-harm.”

In his more than 25-minute ramble on the Senate floor, McConnell delivered a history lesson about World War II, the U.S., and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as he explained how “America’s leaders understood that our interests and those of our European allies were linked, whether we liked it or not.”

(Video Credit: Mitch McConnell)

“American security and stability depended on European security and stability,” he said. “Not least because conflict with Nazi Germany was succeeded immediately by the threat of conflict with the Soviet Union. Millions in Eastern Europe had gone from living under Nazi tyranny to living under Soviet tyranny.”

Americans “understood the stakes” following the devastation of the war, McConnell went on, pointing to the establishment of NATO’s Article 5, “a promise of mutual aid from all members of the alliance if any single member nation is attacked.”

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The senator noted that Trump “is right that Arctic security is a central concern in our strategic competition with major adversaries, and he’ll find similar interest in Arctic security among allies like Denmark, which is investing billions of dollars in its own capabilities in the region.”

“The Danes have been close partners in the Arctic since World War II,” he said, “and brave Danish soldiers fought and died in America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

“There is no ambiguity here. Close ties with our northernmost allies are what make America’s extensive reach in the Arctic possible. And I have yet to hear from this Administration a single thing we need from Greenland that this sovereign people is not already willing to grant us,” McConnell claimed. “Unless and until the President can demonstrate otherwise, then the proposition at hand today is very straightforward: incinerating the hard-won trust of loyal allies in exchange for no meaningful change in U.S. access to the Arctic.”

McConnell contended this is about “more than Greenland.”

“It’s about more than America’s relationship with its highly capable Nordic allies. It’s about whether the United States intends to face a constellation of strategic adversaries with capable friends… or commit an unprecedented act of strategic self-harm and go it alone,” he said.

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He insisted that “any good progress” Trump has made in getting U.S. allies to increase their defense spending “would be for nothing if his Administration’s ill-advised threats about Greenland were to shatter the trust of our allies.” He warned that “following through on this provocation would be more disastrous for the President’s legacy than withdrawing from Afghanistan was for his predecessor.”

The 83-year-old lawmaker generated plenty of criticism on social media.

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Frieda Powers
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