John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, called out the president Friday for singing a familiar tune with his talk of taking over Greenland.
“The language that he uses is completely substitutable for the language that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin uses about Ukraine, ‘We need it for our national security,’ or [Chinese President] Xi Jinping uses about Taiwan,” Bolton told MSNBC’s Chris Jansing.
“This is a free gift to these authoritarian leaders and their aggressive desires.”
Bolton, a fierce Trump critic since the president pushed him out of his first administration, reacted to Trump claiming that America needs the Arctic territory for “international security” in remarks at the White House on Friday.
“We have to have Greenland. It’s not a question of, ‘Do you think we can do without it? We can’t,’” said Trump, who claimed that Chinese and Russian ships were “all over the place” in Greenland’s waterways.
“We’re not relying on Denmark or anybody else to take care of that situation, and we’re not talking about peace for the United States, we’re talking about world peace.”
Trump’s comments arrived on the same day that Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance visited Greenland.
The vice president, who described it being “cold as shit” during his stop, stressed that Denmark was failing residents of the territory as he claimed that they would do better with America taking them under its wings.
Greenlanders overwhelmingly oppose becoming part of the U.S., an opinion poll found in January after Trump reignited talks of America controlling the island.
“When you push and indeed slap publicly democratically elected leaders — whether in Copenhagen or Nuuk, the capital of Greenland — it pushes them into a corner,” Bolton told Jansing.
“They’re not going to be shoved around just because Donald Trump wants it.”
Bolton added that Greenland does have critical strategic importance.
“But the way to get it is to act like a responsible ally, dealing with allies that we’ve built up trust and good faith with over decades, and not ripping the North Atlantic Alliance apart,” he continued.
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“This is what the Trump administration has been doing, in effect, over the last two months.”