Talk of the United States acquiring Greenland has often been dismissed as rhetorical provocation. But the latest escalation is harder to wave away. President Donald Trump said it would be “unacceptable” if the US did not control Greenland only hours before Vice-President J.D. Vance hosted the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers. When territorial language is paired with senior-level diplomacy, it forces allies to draw public red lines, narrows the space for quiet crisis management, and turns...

Talk of the United States acquiring Greenland has often been dismissed as rhetorical provocation. But the latest escalation is harder to wave away. President Donald Trump said it would be “unacceptable” if the US did not control Greenland only hours before Vice-President J.D. Vance hosted the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers. When territorial language is paired with senior-level diplomacy, it forces allies to draw public red lines, narrows the space for quiet crisis management, and turns...