Glenn Beck: Trump’s tariffs and Greenland push have a hidden meaning — and it’s bigger than you realize

President Donald Trump has recently intensified his push to acquire Greenland for U.S. national security reasons, refusing to rule out military force or economic coercion, including tariffs on Denmark and European allies. The U.S. will get control of Greenland "one way or the other,” he told reporters on Air Force One on January 11.

Yesterday at a White House news conference, when asked how far he would go to obtain the ice-covered island, he cryptically replied, "You'll find out."

His determination to acquire Greenland has sparked significant backlash, including strong rejections from Denmark's and Greenland's leaders. Many call it a power-grab that will strain NATO ties and potentially ignite a war.

But Glenn Beck says we have to be smart about the way we think about this. “If you know anything about Donald Trump, he's been against war his whole life,” he says.

Trump’s latest moves, he argues, don’t indicate a desire for war; they indicate a desire to survive an inevitable one.

“What he's acting like is a man who believes the world is dying anyway. The old world is dying and that it's better to break it deliberately and ... grab the wreckage than inherit it by surprise and have to be fighting for the scraps,” he explains, reminding that history repeatedly shows that “only the disruptors ... have a chance of saving their nation.”

Glenn echoes Trump’s words that Denmark “cannot be responsible for the security of the northern hemisphere,” especially against the threat of Russia and China.

“The Danes and the EU are not going to be the ones that prevent war or protect the northern hemisphere. It must be the United States, so we must have control of Greenland,” he says, displaying a map of the country that highlights its strategic location in the Arctic.

Because it straddles the GIUK Gap (Greenland-Iceland-U.K.) between North America and Europe, Greenland is vital for monitoring Russian and Chinese submarines and missiles, providing early warning against attacks on the U.S., controlling access to emerging northern shipping routes, and securing the northern approaches to North America.

For these reasons, the United States has been expressing interest in controlling Greenland since the 1950s, says Glenn, but President Trump — in light of the swelling threat of China and Russia and the weakening of NATO — is actually trying to make it happen.

But this need for hemispheric control extends beyond Greenland.

Glenn suspects that Trump’s tariffs weren’t just economic tools but deliberate “stress tests” on allies and potential partners. By applying pressure equally, even on NATO members like Denmark or close neighbors like Canada, Trump forces the world to answer: Who stands with the West, and who is drifting toward adversaries like China?

Glenn plays recent clips of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney boasting about exporting massive LNG shipments to Asia — “By 2030, Canada will produce 50 million tons of LNG each year, all of which will be destined for Asian markets” — as an example of how tariffs have forced nations to show their true colors.

People might not like Trump’s tariffs or his push for Greenland, but they’re failing to see the big picture.

“The president sees war, and he's preparing for it,” says Glenn.

To hear more of Glenn’s commentary and predictions, watch the video above.

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