The Pentagon does not have any plans to invade Greenland.
If you’re wondering why we said that, it’s because President-elect Donald Trump recently refused to rule out using the U.S. military to take Greenland (and the Panama Canal.) Trump suggested that the United States might buy Greenland during his first term, but nothing came of it. Now, Trump’s national security team has begun discussing how the State Department would negotiate with Greenland and the island’s current rulers in Denmark, according to the Wall Street Journal. However, it’s unclear what these negotiations might entail.
On Wednesday, Fox News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin pressed Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Sigh on whether the Pentagon has plans to take Greenland by force if ordered to.
“Yeah, I appreciate the question,” Singh replied. “I’m not aware of any plans to do that.”
Denmark is a NATO ally and its leaders are not happy about Trump’s latest comments. Trump has often sparred with America’s allies, especially NATO members, whom he has argued should spend more on their own defense. Still, he has been averse to foreign adventures and he told graduating West Point cadets in 2020: “We are ending the era of endless wars. In its place is a renewed clear-eyed focus on defending America’s vital interests. It is not the duty of U.S. troops to solve ancient conflicts in far away lands that many people have never even heard of.”
There’s plenty of other news going on. Here is your weekly rundown:
- Who wants to be defense secretary? The Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to hold its confirmation hearing on Pete Hegseth’s nomination as the next secretary of defense at 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 14. CBS News is reporting that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has privately told Trump that Hegseth has enough votes to be confirmed. From the outset, Hegseth’s nomination faced scrutiny from both the media and Democratic lawmakers stemming from his lack of experience leading organizations of the Defense Department’s size, and allegations about his character, including that his colleagues at Fox News were concerned about his drinking, which Hegseth has denied.
- Los Angeles is burning. California wildfires are out of control. So far, the Pentagon is sending 10 Navy helicopters with water buckets to California, and four C-130s that can drop fire retardant could also be dispatched there if needed. The California and Nevada National Guard each plan to use two such C-130s, known as Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems, or MAFFS, to fight the inferno. “We can surge assets, and the president has directed this department to bolster whatever California needs,” Singh told reporters on Wednesday.
- It’s 2025 and the Army hasn’t figured social media out yet. More and more, soldiers are turning to communities on Reddit, Facebook, Instagram and elsewhere to get help when their chain of command falls short. But Army leaders continue to insist that soldiers should adhere to the chain of command — the same one that didn’t fix the issues in the first place — and keep their problems offline. “Any issue or accusation worth bringing to the attention of millions of people outside the organization should first be brought to the chain of command’s attention,” an Army spokesperson said.
- Syria, the problem that won’t go away. Outgoing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently told the Associated Press that the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops currently deployed in Syria should stay in the country to make sure that detention centers where captured Islamic State group fighters are held are secure. The prisons are run by Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, a mostly Kurdish group that has served as America’s primary partner inside Syria for years. The SDF would be extremely vulnerable to reprisal from Turkey, which considers the group to be a terrorist organization, if American forces withdrew from Syria, as Trump repeatedly tried to order during this first term. U.S. military leaders have long pleaded with the international community to repatriate detainees of the al-Hol displaced persons camp in northeastern Syria, which holds tens of thousands of women and children who are related to ISIS fighters. “The longer we leave them here in these conditions, the greater the chance they will instead raise the next generation of extremists,” Army Gen. Michael ‘Eric’ Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, said in 2022 after visiting the camp.
- Ship named for first Navy SEAL Medal of Honor recipient. Now for a bit of good news. The Navy will name a new Arleigh Burke-class destroyer for the late Sen. Joseph Robert Kerrey, who in 1970 became the first Navy SEAL to be awarded the Medal of Honor, according to the Navy. In March 1969, Kerrey was serving as team leader for Seal Team One during a raid in South Vietnam. He divided his team into two groups and then came across Viet Cong forces that had just broken camp. Kerrey was seriously wounded by a grenade explosion. After putting a tourniquet on his leg, Kerrey kept in radio contact with his team’s second element and ordered U.S. special operators to head to higher ground. “By the end of the ordeal, Kerrey was nearly unconscious,” a 2023 Defense Department news story reads. “But he continued to direct his team’s actions until they were all evacuated.” Kerrey’s right leg was later amputated below the knee. He spent eight months recuperating from his injuries in a Navy hospital in Philadelphia. Bravo Zulu Lt. j.g. Kerrey!
That’s all for now! See you next week.
Jeff Schogol