Pentagon To Redraw Command Map To Align Greenland More Closely With US

The Pentagon is poised to shift its oversight of Greenland by putting it under U.S. Northern Command, a symbolic gesture that would more closely align the island territory with the U.S. as President Donald Trump continues to show interest in taking control over the Arctic landmass.

The shift in oversight, which could come as soon as this week, could also help the U.S. broaden its Golden Dome missile shield by providing more radars for coverage.

Under the plan, Greenland would shift from European Command’s jurisdiction to Northern Command, which is responsible for overseeing the security of North America, according to a DOD official and two people familiar with the planning. The people were granted anonymity to discuss the move ahead of its announcement.

The switch is the most concrete step yet in the Trump administration’s months-long effort to gain ownership over Greenland, an autonomous island aligned with Denmark. Trump briefly brought up buying Greenland during his first term, but has talked about it repeatedly since winning the election last November, alarming the island’s 58,000 inhabitants and frustrating the Danish government, which says it has no interest in selling.

Making Greenland part of Northcom will be heavily scrutinized in Denmark and throughout NATO, which has been uneasy over Trump’s months-long campaign to take control over the island and his refusal to rule out military action to seize territory. Denmark and the semi-autonomous Faroe Islands will remain under European Command, creating a symbolic and operational split between those territories and Greenland.

“From the perspective of geography, the move makes some sense,” said one of the people familiar. “From a political perspective, however, this clearly is going to worry Europe,” the official added.