The Wall Street Journal reports:

Some Republicans who have largely cheered the Venezuela mission said that talk of taking over Greenland was inappropriate.

“Sabre-rattling about annexing Greenland is needlessly dangerous,” said Rep. Blake Moore (R., Utah) in a joint statement with Rep. Steny Hoyer (D., Md.). The co-chairs of the bipartisan Congressional Friends of Denmark Caucus said that Denmark is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally and one of America’s closest partners and an attack on Greenland “would tragically be an attack on NATO.”

They said that Denmark has long accommodated U.S. security requests in Greenland. “If the message is that ‘we need Greenland,’ the truth is that we already have access to everything we could need from Greenland,” the lawmakers said.

Rep. Don Bacon (R., Neb.), a sometime Trump critic who is retiring after this term, said on social media that “denigrating allies serves no purpose and there is NO up side.” He added: “Stop the stupid ‘we want Greenland.’ ”

Others said they weren’t sure if Trump was serious but had a dim view of the prospect.

“You can’t annex Greenland,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.). “It would require an invasion or capitulation on the part of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Tillis added. “That’s why this scenario is never going to occur.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) said he didn’t know “how much is bravado, how much is bombast.” But, he said, “militarily taking Greenland obviously I would not support.” [Continue reading…]