Linky: https://archive.is/SlCn6
Other linky: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/02/13/lindsey-graham-to-allies-get-over-greenland-00780269
Lindsey Graham to allies: Get over Greenland
The South Carolina Republican offered a fairly optimistic take on a NATO alliance that's been battered by the dispute over Greenland.
By Joe Gould
Sen. Lindsey Graham says it’s time for America’s allies to move on from their angst over President Donald Trump’s recent gambit to acquire Greenland — and start doing more work to strengthen the NATO alliance.
“Greenland is behind us,” said the South Carolina Republican Friday at the Munich Security Conference. “I think everybody’s hugging it out and we’ll live to fight another day.”
More broadly, Graham’s message was that Trump’s pressure campaign on Europe has ultimately reinforced NATO — and that allies now need to translate higher defense spending into sharper support for Ukraine. It was an optimistic take after the alliance neared a rupture over Trump’s threats.
“Everybody loves NATO,” Graham said. “Well, I love it because people are doing more.”
Graham, a Trump ally, predicted that talks between the U.S., Greenland and Denmark over the future of the Danish territory will yield an agreement for more U.S. military infrastructure there. Trump recently reversed course after leaving open the option to seize Greenland.
“Who gives a shit who owns Greenland,” Graham said. “The point is Greenland is going to be more fortified because Donald Trump, once he feels like it’s his brand or his buy-in, is going to go big.”
On Ukraine, he said the U.S. needs to put more pressure on Moscow to help peace talks.
Graham said he plans to advocate for Ukraine to receive Tomahawk missiles, more training for Ukrainian forces and longer-range systems capable of striking deeper into Russian territory. He is backing a bipartisan Russia sanctions package that has stalled in Congress, but he insisted Trump would sign it.
“He’s asked me, like, three times, where’s the bill? He went from like, ‘I don’t know about this’ to ‘Yeah, that’s good idea,’” Graham said.
He credited Trump with forcing European governments to boost defense budgets and argued the alliance would not be contributing as much without his prodding. He cast Trump’s mix of tariff threats and unpredictability as an effective approach with allies and adversaries.
“When it’s all said and done, in 2028 or 2032 or 2040 — whenever he leaves — we will have a stronger NATO and a weaker Russia,” he said.
