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

In January 2026, a video (archived) spread online purportedly showing a man speaking to camera, saying that if the U.S. takes Greenland, Europe will "take every single base of the Americans," and, "if [the U.S. takes] Greenland, you have to leave."

The footage circulated as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration repeatedly expressed its desire to acquire Greenland (archived, archived), an autonomous territory of Denmark, most of which lies in the Arctic Circle. As of this writing, the Trump administration had not ruled out using military force to take the Danish territory.

One X user who shared the clip called the speaker "Austria's NATO enlargement committee chairman Fehlinger," referring to Gunther Fehlinger-Jahn, an Austrian economist (archived).

In full, the X user wrote: "If the US annexes Greenland we must confiscate all US bases in Europe, says Austria's NATO enlargement committee chairman Fehlinger. 'If you take Greenland, you have to leave.'"

If the US annexes Greenland we must confiscate all US bases in Europe, says Austria's NATO enlargement committee chairman Fehlinger.

"If you take Greenland, you have to leave". pic.twitter.com/LJcwMVf5O2

— Mariska den Eelden 🇪🇺🇳🇱 (@eeldenden) January 6, 2026

The video and Fehlinger-Jahn's alleged quote appeared in various iterations on Instagram, Threads (archived), Bluesky and Reddit (archived). One Facebook user specifically referred to Fehlinger-Jahn as "Austria's NATO committee chair" (archived).

Some news media outlets also reported that Fehlinger-Jahn was a "NATO official" or even a "NATO chief" (archived, archived). Snopes readers contacted us asking about the veracity of the comments.

In short, the footage was authentic, meaning it was not generated using artificial intelligence tools, and social media users correctly attributed the remarks to Fehlinger-Jahn. However, the Austrian economist was not a NATO "official" or "chief" when he made the comments (and he held neither position at the time of publication). Therefore, we determined that some social media users and news outlets had, in part, miscaptioned the clip.

Who is Fehlinger-Jahn?

Fehlinger-Jahn is the self-described chair of the "Austrian Committee for NATO enlargement" (archived). Via email, he said he had "no official relations with NATO."

Austria is not a NATO member.

The Austrian economist described the committee as an "officially registered" nongovernmental organization and confirmed that, as of this writing, the group does not have a website but intends to create one.

Fehlinger-Jahn also said he launched a public petition for joining NATO in 2022, which is his group's main aim. Therefore, though the committee was not connected to NATO at the time of publication, its aim is to secure NATO membership for Austria. On his social media channels, Fehlinger-Jahn has repeatedly expressed his desire for Austria to join the alliance (archived, archived).

On his website, he described himself as the "Coordinator of the campaign for Austria's NATO membership." On Jan. 5, 2026, he posted a longer version of the video (archived) to X, during which he said the quotes in the social media posts. 

His resume (archived) contained no reference to official NATO employment. 

A NATO spokesperson also confirmed via email that Fehlinger-Jahn "does not speak on behalf of the Alliance."

What Fehlinger-Jahn said

Addressing the U.S., Fehlinger-Jahn said of Greenland (at 1:32, emphasis ours): 

If you take it, we take every single base of the Americans, from Aviano to Ramstein, from Romania to all the other military bases, will be confiscated and you will lose it. And the whole position of American powers since World War II, for which so many Americans were dying and so many trillions were spent in order to have American Europe, and we love it, we say thank you for liberation for the Nazis and from the Soviets to keep us safe and for the liberation of Europe, that was all for America, thank you very much. But, if you take Greenland, you have to leave.

Fehlinger-Jahn described the alleged ability of NATO to remove American troops from European bases as "leverage" against the United States' ambition to take Greenland. He added (at 2:26): 

We will simply run these bases ourselves and we run your boys home into Chicago and Ohio, and goodbye. If you want war we are ready, and that's definitely something we will win. Europe is for eternal and we will also defeat the challenge of Putin and of Trump. But if you go extreme, we go extreme as well, Mrs. Miller. Be sure about it.

"Mrs. Miller" referred to Katie Miller, the wife of senior White House adviser Stephen Miller. On Jan. 3, 2026, days before Fehlinger-Jahn posted his video, she posted an image on X showing a map of Greenland overlaid with the American flag.

NATO is a political and military alliance of nations. One of its core commitments is that an attack against one of its members is considered an attack against all. The U.S. and Denmark are both NATO members. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen previously warned that a U.S. attack on Greenland would spell the end of the alliance.

For further reading, Snopes has reported extensively on Trump's desire to acquire Greenland.