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'I don't know what timeline we're living in': Kentucky leaders respond to Trump's Greenland ambitions

FILE - A boat rides though a frozen sea inlet outside of Nuuk, Greenland, on March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
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AP
FILE - A boat rides though a frozen sea inlet outside of Nuuk, Greenland, on March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)

Several Kentucky lawmakers are expressing opposition to any effort by the US to acquire Greenland by force, but the Republican leaders are putting different spins on the issue.

Among the Kentucky lawmakers who have spoken out, Sen. Mitch McConnell offered the most traditional internationalist response to President Donald Trump's posture toward Greenland.

In a statement, the former Senate leader said the "threats and intimidation by US officials over American ownership of Greenland are as unseemly as they are counterproductive," going on to stress the importance of American alliances and calling any potential use of force "an especially catastrophic act of strategic self-harm to America."

Sen. Rand Paul told CBS he would do "everything in his power to stop a military takeover of Greenland," but held open the possibility of friendly overtures to the country, if there were interest among residents in becoming a part of the US.

"It would have to be done voluntarily," Paul said. "I see no scenario in which... I or... any of my colleagues in the Senate would support a military takeover of Greenland."

Congressman Thomas Massie, meanwhile, balked at the idea, while sounding unconcerned with the shockwaves it would send through post-war military alliances.

"I don't know what timeline we're living in where they're talking about taking over Greenland," the representative told reporters. "Maybe the one good thing that would come out of that is NATO dissolves and we wouldn't have to pay for NATO."

According to a White House statement, Trump sees acquiring Greenland as a US national security priority necessary to "deter our adversaries in the Arctic region."