President Donald Trump on Thursday reiterated the United States ‘needs’ Greenland for national security purposes and indicated he’s willing to send in American troops to take control of the island. 

‘I think it’ll happen,’ the president said of annexing the island during his Oval Office meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

‘We really needed for national security. I think that is why NATO might have to get involved anyway,’ he added.

Trump then noted the U.S. already has a military base on Greenland.

‘We have a couple of bases on Greenland already and we have quite a few soldiers. May be you will see more and more soldiers go there,’ he threatened. ‘We have bases and we have quite a few soldiers on Greenland.’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was sitting on a couch in the Oval Office during the conversation, nodded in agreement. The U.S. has Pituffik Space Base, which supports missile warning and space surveillance operation, on the island.

Trump added he’d talk to Rutte about it.

But the NATO secretary declined to get involved.

‘When it comes to Greenland, yes or no joining the U.S., I would leave that outside, for me, this discussion, because I don’t want to direct NATO in that,’ Rutte said. 

It’s not the first time Trump mulled using military force to take control of territory he wants to add to the American map. 

In early January, after he was elected but before inauguration, Trump indicated he was willing to use force on both Greenland and Panama, where he wants control of the canal. 

Greenlanders, however, voted to rebuff President Trump’s effort to bring their island into the United States.

Voters gave first place in Tuesday’s elections to Demokraatit, a center-right party that has never held power but is strongly opposed to an American takeover of the island, which is a Danish territory.

Democraatit’s leader Jens-Frederik Nielsen, the incoming prime minister, criticized Trump’s call for Greenland to become a U.S. territory.

‘We don’t want to be Americans. No, we don’t want to be Danes. We want to be Greenlanders, and we want our own independence in the future,’ Nielsen told Sky News.

‘And we want to build our own country by ourselves.’

The election in Greenland wasn’t just a rejection of Trump. Citizens of the island are also in favor of independence in general, including a split from Denmark.

Second place went to a political party who wants independence from Copenhagen within the next three years.

Trump is interested in the island’s strategic position in the North Atlantic and its wealth of minerals. It also is believed to have natural gas and oil off its shores. 

There are already fears on Greenland that Trump could take the island by force. 

‘I think most of us have been scared since the new year because of (Trump’s) interest,’ Pipaluk Lynge, a member of parliament from the ruling Inuit Ataqatigiit, or United Inuit party, told The Associated Press. 

‘So we’re really, really looking to Europe right now to see if we could establish a stronger bond with them to secure our sovereign nation.’ 

Greenland is the world’s largest island and also one of the most sparsely populated. It is home to about 56,000 people.

It has been controlled by Denmark for almost 300 years. It became a formal territory in 1953 and gained home rule in 1979. 

Copenhagen, however, still defends the island contributes about $1 billion to its economy.

Greenlanders also have Danish passports and healthcare. The island also benefits from Denmark’s memberships in NATO and the EU.