NATO official allegedly said Europe would take every US base if Trump takes Greenland. Here's the real story

As U.S. President Donald Trump continued calls for a U.S. takeover of Greenland in January 2026, international affairs experts and world leaders expressed concern about what the potential seizure might mean for the NATO.

Founded in 1949, NATO is a military alliance. As tensions mounted between the U.S.-led West and USSR-led Soviet Union, NATO aimed to ensure security for members. At first, NATO consisted of 12 members, including the U.S., the U.K. and France. Those countries were the only members with nuclear weapons. After the Soviet bloc collapsed in 1991, NATO expanded, adding former Soviet republics. In 2024, Sweden became the 32nd country to join the alliance, leaving Russia as the only Arctic country outside of NATO. 

Albeit semi-autonomous, Greenland is part of Denmark, another founding member of NATO. Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty says an armed attack on, or invasion of, a NATO member is an attack on all, and that all members should respond collectively. So far in history, there's never been a situation in which one NATO member attacked another NATO member.

As NATO contemplates the possibility of its most powerful member — the U.S. — using its military to attack Greenland, as Trump has suggested, there is no certainty the alliance would survive.

Over the years, Snopes has examined many claims about NATO, ranging from a rumor that Adolf Hitler's former chief of staff became a NATO official later in life to a claim that an ex-NATO general said Europeans must stand ready to fight the U.S if it invades Greenland. Here's a sample: