Stephen Miller Says Might Makes Right In US Takeover: ‘They Cannot Defend Greenland’
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on Friday claimed the United States of America has a right to annex Greenland because the “tiny country” of Denmark can’t defend its self-governing territory against US military might.
Miller on Fox News was attempting to reinforce President Donald Trump’s stated efforts to “take Greenland” — a threat that has led several NATO allies to preemptively deploy troops there and has since sparked widespread protests in Denmark.
Miller also reiterated the administration’s central argument that it’s vital for “national security.”
“Greenland is the size of one-fourth the continental United States,” he told Sean Hannity. “With respect to Denmark, Denmark is a tiny country with a tiny economy and a tiny military. They cannot defend Greenland. They cannot control the territory of Greenland.”
He continued, “Under every understanding of law that has existed about territorial control for 500 years, to control a territory you have to be able to defend a territory, improve a territory, inhabit a territory. Denmark has failed on every single one of these tests.”
Using force against sovereign nations has long been illegal under international law, except in self-defence or with explicit authorisation from the United Nations, of which Greenland is a member through the kingdom of Denmark.
Miller has long espoused a “might makes right” philosophy in geopolitics and has rebuked the long-held international rules-based order of laws, norms, and agreements among countries following the Allied victory in World War II.
Greenland officials last week rejected the threat of a takeover with blunt words for Trump, and several European leaders joined Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in declaring that “Greenland belongs to its people” — and that this isn’t up for discussion.
Trump announced on Saturday that multiple European countries – including the UK – could face tariffs on imports to the US until a deal for “the Complete and Total purchase” of Greenland is secured.
On Friday, Miller said that the “new domain of international competition is going to be polar.”
“That is where more and more resources are being spent by our nation’s adversaries and rivals,” he told Hannity. “The ability to control movement, navigation back lanes of travel in the polar and arctic regions. Greenland is 25% larger than Alaska.”
He then argued the US spends too much money on Greenland’s defence to not just take it — and that Trump is merely “insisting that we be respected.”
“But they say, well … it belongs 100% to Denmark,” Miller told Hannity. “It’s a raw deal. It’s an unfair deal. And most importantly, it’s unfair to the American taxpayers who have subsidized all of Europe’s defense for generations now.”
Miller, among the chief architects of Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda, then argued that American “blood” and “treasure” is what has kept Europe and the rest of “the free world” safe.