Throughout Thursday’s Scenario Room, CNN chief world affairs correspondent Matthew Likelihood tried and didn’t painting a latest army train performed by NATO allies in Greenland as a hands-off message to President Trump. Whereas Danish army leaders ignored their repeated misguided insinuations, CNN nonetheless revealed Likelihood’s frivolous beliefs as details.
The train, often called Arctic Gentle 2025, was a joint effort between Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden and Norway. U.S. army management, together with Secretary Pete Hegseth, had been invited to look at whereas U.S. army items had been noticeably absent.
Danish Joint Arctic Commander Soren Andersen summed up the aim of the train to Likelihood, noting that it was meant to ship a message to Russia which was threatening NATO (Click on “increase”):
ANDERSEN: We’re right here to guard Greenland. And so as to shield Greenland, we now have to coach. And — as a result of if you happen to’re not up right here and conduct coaching, you are not in a position to defend Greenland. So, that is what we’re doing.
CHANCE: What are the safety threats to Greenland? Who’re you defending it from?
ANDERSEN: Yeah, towards Russia. That’s the important risk for Greenland. There’s not a risk now, however there is a future risk. So, we’re trying right into a risk when the conflict in Ukraine is over.
Appears affordable sufficient. However it wasn’t sufficient to satiate Likelihood, who discovered it suspicious that Denmark would enhance army spending with a conflict on the continent. “However such a distant hazard begs the query why Denmark is ramping up army spending proper now to the tune of billions of {dollars} and pouring its restricted assets into the Arctic,” he questioned.
Setting apart the plain vantage level Greenland had in relation to the U.S., Western Europe and Russia, it is usually significantly wealthy in extremely sought-after minerals and pure assets, which any nation would salivate over. If Russia ended up profitable in its invasion of Ukraine, Greenland could be a long-term goal.
Whereas CNN needed its shrinking viewers to consider this train was a center finger to Trump, it may truly be interpreted as an appeasement. Trump’s requires NATO allies to pay their justifiable share resulted in a dedication by most member states to lift their protection spending to 5 % of annual GDP. If Denmark was actually attempting to stay it to Trump as Likelihood thinks they had been, they wouldn’t have bothered to look out for his or her self-interest within the first place.
Likelihood’s TDS continued to protrude, “Now, the aim of this train is to discourage international locations like Russia and China, we’re instructed by Danish army officers, that are more and more lively within the Arctic area. However the true message, the true audience for all of that is in Washington and President Trump.”
To attempt to show his level, Likelihood requested Danish Chief of Protection Michael Hyldgaard concerning the supposed secret message. However the Chief refused to provide into the partisan video games (Click on “increase”):
CHANCE: Is the true cause for these maneuvers the remarks by President Trump concerning the sovereignty of Greenland? Is it supposed to ship a message to Washington?
HYLDGAARD: It is a army train. It’s to reveal our means to guard Greenland, and that is the army facet of it.
CHANCE: It is not meant as a message to Washington, that Greenland can shield this — that Denmark can shield Greenland?
HYLDGAARD: I am not a politician. So, I’ve a army process.
One would assume CNN would applaud a army official for remaining apolitical. Likelihood ought to have caught to reporting the comparatively easy details of the occasion as an alternative of insisting upon Trump having one thing to do with all of it.
However the CNN correspondent tripled-down on his downright dumb take: “However as we flew out of Greenland, it was clear that army process carries a key Danish political aim, not simply to discourage Moscow and Beijing from ever invading this huge Arctic expanse, but additionally to persuade Washington there is not any have to take Greenland as its personal.”
As Likelihood wouldn’t have it, the Arctic Gentle 2025 operation being performed with out direct U.S. participation demonstrates a need and skill for self-sufficiency, which was good for NATO and the USA. Even lefty Reuters included that perspective.
The transcript is beneath. Click on “increase” to learn:
CNN’s The Scenario Room
October 2, 2025
10:55:21 p.m. EST
(…)
MATTHEW CHANCE: It is a huge panorama, distant and nearly untamed. However Greenland has emerged as a key Arctic battleground as Russia and China vie with NATO allies for Arctic affect.
CNN was invited right here by the Danish army to look at their largest ever fight train dubbed “Arctic Gentle.”
A lot of Greenland, dominated by Denmark for 3 centuries, is a moonscape of jagged ice. A frozen desert, wealthy in assets the scale of Alaska and California mixed. Danish army officers say this unforgiving terrain is nearly unconquerable. However they’re coaching onerous to repulse any would-be attackers.
SOREN ANDERSEN: We’re right here to guard Greenland. And so as to shield Greenland, we now have to coach. And — as a result of if you happen to’re not up right here and conduct coaching, you are not in a position to defend Greenland. So, that is what we’re doing.
CHANCE: What are the safety threats to Greenland? Who’re you defending it from?
ANDERSEN: Yeah, towards Russia. That’s the important risk for Greenland. There’s not a risk now, however there is a future risk. So, we’re trying right into a risk when the conflict in Ukraine is over.
CHANCE: However such a distant hazard begs the query why Denmark is ramping up army spending proper now to the tune of billions of {dollars} and pouring its restricted assets into the Arctic.
CHANCE: Effectively, Greenland has grow to be a extremely contested territory, seen as strategically necessary. And Denmark has deployed its Air Power, its Navy and its land belongings right here to indicate that it’s in cost very a lot and is growing its presence.
Now, the aim of this train is to discourage international locations like Russia and China, we’re instructed by Danish army officers, that are more and more lively within the Arctic area. However the true message, the true audience for all of that is in Washington and President Trump.
PRES. DONALD TRUMP [on 05/04/25]: We want Greenland for nationwide safety and even worldwide safety, and we’re working with all people concerned to try to get it.
CHANCE: That ambition seems to have dropped off the White Home agenda, no less than for now.
TRUMP [on 05/04/25]: Somehow, we’ll get it.
CHANCE: However within the icy fjords of Greenland, with naval workout routines underway too, it is nonetheless seen as essentially the most urgent diplomatic problem. Though Denmark’s prime common, who CNN met on board a Danish frigate, was cautious to not admit it in public.
CHANCE: Is the true cause for these maneuvers the remarks by President Trump concerning the sovereignty of Greenland? Is it supposed to ship a message to Washington?
MICHAEL HYLDGAARD: It is a army train. It’s to reveal our means to guard Greenland, and that is the army facet of it.
CHANCE: It is not meant as a message to Washington, that Greenland can shield this — that Denmark can shield Greenland?
HYLDGAARD: I am not a politician. So, I’ve a army process.
CHANCE: However as we flew out of Greenland, it was clear that army process carries a key Danish political aim, not simply to discourage Moscow and Beijing from ever invading this huge Arctic expanse, but additionally to persuade Washington there is not any have to take Greenland as its personal.
Matthew Likelihood, CNN, in Greenland.
