The Duran Podcast - NATO and Trump negotiate Greenland without Greenland/Denmark

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

NATO and Trump negotiate Greenland without Greenland/Denmark

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the event in Davos and the meeting between U.S. President Trump and Mark Ruta, where, according to Trump and according to Turuta's statements as well, they agreed on a framework for Greenland. Vute, the NATO CEO and Trump, agreed on a framework for Greenland. Without Greenland there, without Denmark there, this is what they agreed to. Amazing that they come out and say that they've agreed to this framework deal about Greenland without Denmark and Greenland actually there. But this is the message we got from Trump via Truth Social. These are the statements from Ruta that he has made to various media outlets.

And according to the Telegraph, they claim that the deal is modeled after Cyprus. I know what it's like in Cyprus having the British basis, the sovereign territory. It's actually sovereign territory of Britain in various patches, parts of Cyprus. This is what according to the telegraph, the framework is modeled after. We don't have a deal. We don't have a signed deal yet. Denmark is pushing back. At least their first statements are along the lines of we're not agreeing to any of this.

These are their first statements. We weren't consulted. We're not agreeing to this. But Trump has also fired back at Denmark in a way. And he said, look, I'm dealing with the NATO. This guy's more important than Denmark. Quite an astonishing statement from Trump, right? To say that Ruta is more important when it comes to territorial agreements about Denmark than Denmark is.

So what are your thoughts about this deal? If this is indeed the case, if what the telegraph is reporting, and Axios is also reporting the same thing about this framework deal, Vance and Ruby are going to follow up to get this deal through, according to Trump. If this is indeed the case, then it looks like we have a fractured Greenland. Greenland is fractured. Parts of Greenland will be part of the United States, but Greenland will also remain as is. And the tariffs are walked back, no more tariffs on Europe. And I think it's a situation which is pretty bad and pretty ugly all around. What are your thoughts? I think so. I mean, this is an extremely unstable deal altogether. And you're absolutely correct.

A deal negotiated over the heads of the Danes and the Greenlanders by the United States and NATO, the NATO Secretariat. native bureaucracy and no evidence at all that the Danes were even consulted or told about this or told that Ruta wanted to negotiate directly with Trump about this matter. And of course, as for the Greenlanders, they have an aspiration towards independence. And already you could see that their independence step by step, inch by inch, is being taken away. Now, Trump doesn't come that well from this, because he had a very straightforward position. He said, I want Greenland. I want the whole of Greenland to be transferred to me. I think that Greenland should belong to the United States.

We controlled Greenland during the Second World War. We should never have given it back to the Danes. The Danes haven't done anything with it. If he simply asked earlier for new bases and things of that kind in Greenland, well, you know, he would probably have got them from the Danes and from NATO sooner or later, one way or the other. Direct negotiations. Exactly, through conventional negotiations. It wouldn't have been this extraordinary episode that we have had over the last two weeks, which has put enormous strains between the United States and its European allies, just to say. he would have achieved probably what he wanted. It would have taken him a bit longer, but he would have got there in the end.

But we have this deal. I imagine that people in Denmark will be very unhappy about this. I suspect Fredrickson will be very unhappy to have been treated in this way. Even if she was consulted about what Mark Lutter was doing, I mean, she would still feel angry. that she wasn't there, whilst the discussions took place. But the people who must be feeling really furious

are the people of Greenland, who, instead of getting independence, which apparently is what most of them want, now we'll find that even if they do get an independence, it is an independence which they will have to share with the United States. The United States will be there in Greenland. And I'm going to say something else. I mean, the way this thing works, this agreement, and you can discuss the situation with bases

and the exeteriority and the fact that the British of sovereignty over their bases, all of that kind of thing. I mean, the way this can work may work, especially given the stance that Trump himself has taken. and he's obvious and apparent desire to have Greenland. If I was a Greenlander, I would be saying to myself, look, Trump's going to have all of these bases. He's going to have all of these mineral rights. He's going to have extraterritorial sovereignty over parts of our country.

Sooner or later, one way or the other, either he or a future American president is going to take it all. They're going to push us completely aside. They're already going to have their basis here. They're going to be an enormous presence in Greenland. Probably at some point there will be more Americans in Greenland than there are Greenlanders. And they will push us aside. So I don't know that that is what's going to happen.

But if I'm sure there will be many people in Greenland who are very upset and very, very angry about this. And again, we go back to the points that we were making in many programs. The Europeans cannot afford a rupture, a breakdown in relations between themselves and the United States. They are utterly dependent on the United States economically, technologically, in security terms. their obsessive priority is Project Ukraine, and they want to keep Trump and the United States to the extent that they can on side over Project Ukraine. So what do they do? They drag in, they bring in Mark Rutter.

We were discussing, I think we've discussed in various programs, how the Europeans might put pressure on the Danes to make concessions, to give Greenland to Trump. In fact, they've done something even more simple. They've got Mark Luter to negotiate directly with Trump and come to a deal with Trump, cutting out the Danes. Ukraine, Project Ukraine, especially at this time, is by far the greater priority for them. And they will appease Trump. to the extent that they can in order to keep him on side. And if this means throwing the Danes and the Greenlanders under the bus, well, we've seen that they've just done it.

Well said. That is exactly what Ruta did. And the Europeans did. Ruta would not do this without the support of at least the big countries in Europe. Yes. Right? The France, the Germany, all of these countries. And the UK as well, all of these countries, I'm sure, gave,

gave root the green light to go ahead and negotiate this. It's astonishing when you think about it. I was listening to you just now explaining the situation. And I'm at a loss for words. NATO, NATO negotiates with the United States, the United States being pretty much NATO, right? So NATO negotiates with the United States to take sovereign control over parts of Greenland, parts of Denmark. That's effectively what has happened. And these parts will be, will be part of the United States. These military bases, these territories, these chunks of land, wherever they are in Greenland, are going to be parts of the United States of America. And I can tell you from my living in Cyprus that there's nothing Greenland or Denmark will be able to do about it.

whatever the United States wants to do on these territories, whatever military operations, military actions, whatever they want to do, if this deal does go through, because it has not gone through yet, I do believe we have some ways to go. But if this does go through, there is nothing that Denmark and Greenland can do about anything that happens on these military bases or this sovereign territory. I'm at a loss for words as to have. this was allowed to happen? How can Denmark, Fredrickson, allow this to happen? How could Europe allow this to happen? Allow Routhe, allow NATO to just go in and negotiate parts of Danish territory to the United States? Just give it away. No referendum from Denmark, from Greenland,

especially from Greenland, no referendum, no vote. Now they're going to have U.S. military bases, big U.S. military bases starting to set up shop there. Operations, military operations, minerals, rare earth minerals, mining, whatever else is in the deal. And the Greenlanders, not only did they not have a say in all of this, it wasn't even Denmark that negotiated this. I mean, at least if it was Denmark, you could make the argument. Well, the Danish government, they they sold us out. The people that we voted in, the people that that govern us, they sold us out. But you can't even say that. It's, I'm at a loss for words as to how this all happened. And this is not good for the United States either, Alexander. No. It's not a good position for the United

States either. Anyway, your thoughts. No, absolutely. We see again the Empire of Brussels making the decisions on part of the provinces. Because, of course, we've discussed in many programs how the EU and NATO bureaucracies have effectively joined with each other. They're not exactly the same thing, but they meet together, they discuss things with each other. They're both present in the same city. And, of course, their primary objective,

their overriding concern is their self-preservation, keeping themselves running, keeping the money flow from the United States still coming in, keeping the US involved. Because as you rightly said, without the US, there is no NATO. So for that reason, for that reason, they will make decisions. They will cut whatever deal they can with the United States. And the point is that they no longer respect the sovereignty of their European member states. They don't respect the sovereignty of Denmark any more than the EU respected the sovereignty of Greece or Cyprus. I mean, you were in Cyprus when the EU was taking money out of people's bank accounts.

So now NATO is doing something very similar. cutting deals with the United States, handing over significant parts of Denmark, and essentially military control, sorry, significant parts of Greenland and essential military control over Greenland to the United States. And, well, Greenlanders, Danes, they don't count sovereign rights, don't count democracy. The, I mean, NATO presents itself. about being there to defend democracy. Well, we see the democracy, the democratic rights at the Greenlanders

are sacrificed for the preservation, for the preservation, the prolongation of NATO. This particular deal, actually, what it also reminds me of is the original Diego Garcia deal that the British and the Americans made, in the 1960s over the island of Diego Garcia, which is part of the Jagos Islands of the Pacific. The British did the deal with the Americans, that the Americans would have this enormous base on Diego Garcia and all sorts of the people who were lived there were taken away and

they had no say in the matter, and it was an awful and shabby deal, and it's been protested and complained about ever since, and there's been many cases and courts about it. But of course, the point about that deal was it was the British Empire that made that deal. There was never any doubt that it was the British Empire that made the deal over the Chagos Islands, just as it was the British Empire that made the deal decide, imposed basically, the decision about the bases in Cyprus. This time, it's not a... formal empire, it's a bureaucracy, which has in effect become an extraterritorial bureaucracy, which in

effect has declared itself an empire. Now, this is incredibly unstable. There will, I'm sure, be major pushback against this in Greenland. Maybe not immediately, because probably people in Greenland, a stunned about this. And of course, there aren't many people in Greenland. I've heard 57,000. So, I mean, they won't be able to do very much, but they will be very upset and very angry. And sooner or later, they will protest and there will be complaints. I predict there will be complaints in Denmark as well. But as you absolutely rightly said, all of the big states, Britain, France, Germany, they're all lining up. Italy, they're all going to line up to back this. They are going to act again as the enforcers

to make sure that this deal is done. And that, I think, partly explains why some people, Stama, for example, decided to stay away from Davos after all, because they know what an utterly shameful operation this is, giving away the sovereign parts of a sovereign country in this kind of way without consulting the people there. And Stama didn't like being asked questions at a press conference earlier about why he was appeasing Trump. And of course, he doesn't want to be asked questions in Davos, especially, about about the deal that's been done.

He wants to put his distance between himself and Trump and this particular deal, which is why he stayed away from Davos. By the way, the first article appeared, has appeared in the British media, which has compared Starmar to Chamberlain, Neville Chamberlain. So remember, I talked about Munich. We talked about Munich, 1938, an appeasement. Finally, after a long delay, some people in Britain in the mainstream media are beginning to connect the dots.

Well, Denmark, their first reactions right now is looking at the reactions from Denmark. They're saying that there's no deal. Nothing has been signed. Nothing has been agreed. They're in a conversation now with, I guess, with NATO and the United States. One and the same. The United States negotiates with NATO. The United States is negotiating with itself.

But Denmark is saying, no. No deal. We don't agree to any of this. Do you think that Denmark's going to be able to hold out? No, I don't. Because for one thing, again, what we said all along, that sooner or later, the Europeans, the NATO bureaucracy, all of these people were going to put enormous pressure on Denmark. to basically give Greenland to the United States. We see that that is playing out. What Friedrichsen and her government and the people of Denmark and the people of Greenland can now see is that all those brave words of support, all those statements from the Europeans, were worth absolutely nothing.

I mean, the Danes are going to go into this negotiation with the Americans, and with NATO, knowing that their allies, their so-called allies in Europe, aren't there with them. You remember, I think somebody asked me, what will happen if Denmark continues to say no? And I said, I think it was one on a live stream, that one act of pressure that the Europeans can put is that they can leave Denmark basically isolated. trying to negotiate with the United States by itself. Well, isn't that exactly what's happening? Isn't that exactly? It's worse.

They weren't even there at the table. Exactly. They weren't even there on the table. So, I mean, the Danes can say there's no deal. The Danes can say that they have to approve it. But they're going to come along. They're going to tell the Americans, we don't agree with this. And they'll be on their own.

The Americans have enormous points of pressure they can bring against Denmark, which is a small country. And of course, Greenland, as far as the Americans are concerned, hardly counts. And if the Danes refuse this deal, not only are they on their own, but of course, what's going to inevitably happen is that there's going to be a pile up. and the other big European states are going to swing and align with the US, and sooner or later this will be done. And to repeat again, you know, the Americans will go into Greenland. They will have all of these bases, they will have a massive military presence. It is one thing to share Cyprus with the British, who are a declining empire when the deal was done and are no longer an empire, even an empire.

Now, sharing Greenland with the United States when it's quite likely that there will be more Americans, civilians and military people in Greenland at some point in the not so distant future than Greenlanders. And the Americans are going to establish bases and mining facilities and they'll build roads, communications, airports, and all of those sort of things. I mean, it's going to, the Americans are, I mean, it's going to be a very different dynamic than the one in Cyprus. Sooner or later, more likely than not, the Americans will say, time for us to have it all. Intel agencies, all of it, the bureaucracy, all of it comes to Greenland in much the same way that it's in that it's here in Cyprus.

And it acts as a sort of Damocles over our heads, right? We have these bases in this territory, which is on our land in our country, but it's not part of our country. And these bases are used for all kinds of military operations. They're outsourced to other countries for their military operations. And there's nothing that we can do about it. Not one damn thing. Because what's tiny Cyprus going to do? Yes.

To the big UK and behind the UK, the United States, right? Because they're the ones that ultimately, when you have military operations, they're the ones that for the most part are using these bases. There's nothing you can do about it. And it's awful. You know, you drive around the island and you come into parts of the island, which you're entering the UK. Yes.

And you say, how is this possible? How is this freaking possible? Yes. But there it is. The Trump administration, how does this look for Trump? By the way, Alexander, when just going back to what I was saying earlier about Trump saying that he's speaking with Rute and he doesn't need to speak with Denmark, he actually told a reporter, and I quote, I'll be discussing it with this man right here.

He is frankly more important when he was asked about Denmark already rejecting these negotiations. The Danish foreign minister right away rejected everything. That was agreed on between Ruta and Trump at this meeting. And Trump was asked point blank, what do you make of Denmark already coming on and rejecting this framework agreement or these negotiations? And Trump said, I don't care. I'm discussing it with this man, Mark Routte, who is frankly more important. He's more important when it comes to Greenland than Denmark. That was Trump's response. And that's a direct quote from Trump, by the way. So what does it? mean for the United States and for Trump? He walks back the tariffs. So he comes out with these

big tariff threats once again, walks them all back now. He was going on for a year about taking Greenland. In the last month, it was very aggressive, his rhetoric about Greenland, his rhetoric about Greenland, his statements, his memes, his posts on truth, social. Very, very aggressive, very definitive. We're taking Greenland. We're not going to lease Greenland. We're not going to come to a negotiation and agreement with Greenland. We're going to take it. That was his message.

We need it for X, Y, and Z. He gave all kinds of excuses all the time. Now it's the Golden Dome and security and stuff like that. At the end of the day, what we got is a fractured Greenland. Yeah. A split apart and fractured Greenland with parts of Greenland, now going to the United States. But what else has been fractured? the entire collective West. NATO, the transatlantic partnership, the trust in the trust or the belief

in the United States by the vassals. So even the vassals. Now, the vassals are looking at the master and they're saying, you know, the master can turn on us at any moment. So this has rattled them. So what do you make of all this? And you have a very unstable situation in Greenland. Yes. You had a peaceful, stable, low-key Greenland situation. No one really talked about it. Very peaceful, very calm. And now it's turned into this open, sore wound, which is going to fester long term.

Absolutely. I mean, I'm good to say it. I think Trump comes out badly from this. I mean, he can say that he's actually gained an awful lot, which in a way, in a sense, he has. I mean, he's got rights for the US in Greenland, which you didn't have before. Very important rights, as we've discussed, but it's not the whole of Greenland. I mean, he gave everybody the impression that he wanted the whole of Greenland. And he made incredible threats to get the whole of Greenland.

And he was incredibly crude about those threats. And he's ended up with something far less. Now, to people who perhaps aren't analyzing this in the kind of detail that we've done in this program, and they are the vast majority of people, I mean, vast majority of people in the United States, I'm going to go into the details. They're not going to make comparisons with Cyprus. Go to Cyprus. I mean, how many Americans know anything about the situation in Cyprus?

To most of them, it will seem as if Donald Trump has won. once again, being the great wizard of Oz, he's made all kinds of threats, he's come out looking incredibly strong, he says, you know, if you don't, you know, I will do all of these terrible things. And at the end of it all, he's, as far as most people in the US can see, he's backed down because he hasn't moved forward with his threats. He's not taking control of Greenland. He's getting bases and territorial things. Well, Americans are. are very used to the fact that they got bases around the world. The significance of this isn't going to actually move them. So I think that there will be a lot of people who will say,

well, what was all that about then? I mean, what was the point of all of that? Why is he spending all this time, halfing and parthing and talking about Greenland when my grocery bills are getting higher and higher all the time? And after all that, he passed. He passed. He passed, down and he doesn't give us free Greenland. So I think this is not going to go down well in the United States as far as Trump is concerned. And of course, some people within the military bureaucracies, the deep state, those kind of people will probably be reasonably pleased with this compromise. Others will say exactly what you've just said. This is going to be a festering wound. We've weakened our alliances, our relationships with the Europeans. We've worsened the impression there is of us in

Europe, which is already not that good, but we've made it worse. We've been seen to bully a small country, Denmark, and we got lots of problems because it's highly likely that in Denmark and in Greenland itself, we're going to have problems with the local people who are going to be bitterly resentful of our presence. And, well, what we're going to be. good ultimately, what benefit have we achieved from all of this. But as I said, in terms of getting that big achievement, that big plus that he could show to the American people ahead of the midterms, if ever this was part of that, well, this deal doesn't do that. I mean, it falls far, far short as politically, in pure political terms, this has been a foul. Yeah. Well, they get to build the golden

Dome, Alexander, for which hypersonic missiles will make Swiss cheese out of. Nonsense. Okay. Anyway, all right, we'll wrap it up there at the durand.locals.com. We are on X and Rumble and Telegram. We are also on substack. There is a link in the description box down below and go to the Durant shop. Pick up some merch, 26% off all merch.

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