U.S. President Trump reiterated at a White House press conference on Wednesday that annexing Greenland is critical to U.S. national security and that his Vice President Vance is preparing to travel there. "We can't have good national security if we don't have Greenland," Trump told reporters.

Earlier in the day, Trump said in an interview with radio host Vince Kolianis that the United States must "let them know that we need Greenland for international security. We need it. We have to have it. It's an island that's in a defensive posture or even an offensive posture that we need. When you see hundreds of ships coming up the coast, that's a busy place."

Trump told Kolianis he wasn't sure Greenlanders were ready to become U.S. citizens, "but I think we have to do it and convince them that we have to own this land because without it we can't properly defend most of the planet, not just the United States. So we have to own it and I think we will own it."