Opinion: Lisa Murkowski Has No Good Reason to Be in Denmark

By Greg Sarber

Alaska’s Senator Lisa Murkowski is on a trip to Copenhagen along with a group of Congressional Democrats. They are there to reassure the Danes that the US Congress will use political strategies to prevent President Trump from taking over Greenland. However, Murkowski is not our secretary of state, and no one else on the trip is either. By going there, she is interfering with the President’s foreign policy and may hinder whatever President Trump is trying to accomplish.

I admit President Trump’s Greenland initiative is a bit of a puzzler. The president may really want to make Greenland part of the United States, or his comments may be a negotiating tactic for something else. I don’t know what the president’s goal is, and Lisa Murkowski doesn’t know either, but I am sure there is some purpose to his comments.

We can look at his tariff strategy to get some insight into how he negotiates deals. If you recall, early last year, the president believed our country was being taken advantage of by other countries around the world, which imposed one-sided tariffs on our goods entering their countries. The biggest culprit was China. He raised tariffs on China, and they responded with increased tariffs of their own. This went back and forth a few times, until tariffs on Chinese goods entering the US were up to 145%. The political pundits predicted this would destroy our economy and urged President Trump to reconsider. He didn’t blink, and the reality was that his aggressive action forced China to come to the negotiating table.

We eventually signed a fair trade deal with them, setting the current reciprocal tariff to 10%, with higher tariffs on certain intellectual property/technology items, and some agricultural goods exempted. This is probably what he wanted all along. The initial outrageous tariffs President Trump imposed were a negotiating tactic. His standard mode of operation is to ask for something shocking and then settle for the best deal he can get.

This may be what is going on with Greenland. The president’s opening bid was to suggest that the US take over the island. Considering that Denmark is a NATO member and the US pays the vast majority of the costs defending their country, including the defense of Greenland, maybe he is trying to get some benefit in return.

Russia or China may be cozying up to the Greenlanders to access their mineral resources, and the president might figure that if we have to defend them, then we should be the first in line to benefit. Perhaps he sees the strategic value of opening new military bases there and wants to negotiate to do so. Maybe he really does want to make Greenland part of the US. Nobody knows for sure, but whatever his objective is, Murkowski isn’t helping by meddling in the situation.

Unfortunately, when she goes to Denmark behind the president’s back, it undercuts the president’s negotiating position. Think of it this way. If you wanted to buy a house and your realtor leaked to the seller what price you were willing to pay, you wouldn’t get the best deal. This kind of unethical behavior is prohibited in the real estate profession. However, that is exactly what Lisa is doing over in Denmark: destroying the president’s leverage.

Our government has an official cabinet-level position responsible for international negotiations, which is the United States Secretary of State, a position currently held by Marco Rubio. That is not Lisa’s role as a member of the Senate. Perhaps her visit to Denmark is a way to get back at the president because she doesn’t like the man. Perhaps she is tilting at windmills from a liberal sense of what is fair. Whatever the reason for her trip, Snow White and the ten Democrats need to remember their roles in our government. Princess Lisa does not represent the people of Greenland; she is supposed to represent Alaska, and is not doing that when she goes to Copenhagen. She needs to get back to Washington DC and start doing the job we pay her for.

This story was reprinted with permission from the author. It was originally published 1/21/26 on “Seward’s Folly,” the author’s Substack.

Greg Sarber is a lifelong Alaskan. He is a petroleum engineer who spent his career working on Alaska’s North Slope. Now retired, he lives with his family in Homer, Alaska. Greg is a former board member of Alaska Gold Communications, Inc., the publisher of Must Read Alaska.