Until recently, Greenland’s 56,000 citizens went about their lives on the sparsely populated mid-Atlantic island far from the glare of international attention. Now they find themselves — and their political future — on the shopping list of the incoming U.S. president.
President-elect Donald Trump doubled down this week on his ambition to take control of the autonomous Danish territory — as well as Canada and the Panama Canal. He told reporters that he would not rule out military or economic force to make the Arctic island part of the United States.
On the same day, his son Donald Trump Jr. visited Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, which was covered in a thick blanket of snow. If he’d looked beyond the smattering of enthusiastic supporters wearing MAGA hats who greeted him, he would have found a mixed reaction and some alarm among ordinary Greenlanders to Trump senior’s suggestion of brute force.
It’s “really scary,” construction architect Tittus Dalager told the Danish broadcaster DR. “He says things directly, we know him for that. But it comes a little suddenly.”
Another resident, Edvard Jensen, was more dismissive, telling DR that he didn’t believe Trump would invade Greenland. “He just wants the attention, and now he has it.”
Greenland’s residents echoed the bewilderment expressed by European leaders Wednesday in response to Trump’s statements. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was confused by the incoming president’s comments, while France’s foreign minister said that any attack within European borders would not be tolerated.
The world’s largest island has been under Denmark’s control since the 14th century, and most of its citizens belong to Inuit tribes. But for the longstanding independence movement in the autonomous territory, being sold by the Danish government to their American counterparts is hardly part of the plan.
“We are a proud Indigenous people with right to self-determination and not some sort of good that can be traded,” Aaja Chemnitz, a member of Greenland’s parliament, told NBC News, adding that the future “is for Greenlanders to decide, and the majority wants to be independent.”
While the island is “open for more co-operation with the U.S., Canada and other likeminded countries that are interested in an equal relationship,” Chemnitz said in an interview, “Greenland is not for sale and will never be for sale.”
Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede has also rejected Trump’s suggestion of taking over the country.
While the independence debate has dominated Greenlandic politics as times, Trump’s desire to acquire the Arctic land is a subject many pro- and anti-independence Greenlanders can agree on.
Inger Skydsbjerg, an administration worker in Nuuk, told Danish television channel DKTV that she was in favor of remaining linked to Copenhagen and “not so happy” with Trump’s designs.
“We have Denmark. We have the Arctic Command here in Greenland, in Nuuk, that defend us. So, we are satisfied with this,” she said.
For its part, Denmark has made it clear that it has no plans to give up its territory.
This month, Danish King Frederik changed the historic royal coat of arms to emphasize the Greenlandic symbol of the polar bear, telling viewers in his New Year’s address that “we are all united … all the way to Greenland.”
Connected or not, the president-elect has repeatedly discussed the idea of purchasing Greenland, having eyed the territory — with its large U.S. Air Force base and pristine rare mineral reserves — since his first term in office.
Trump’s comments in a post on his Truth Social platform this week, that “Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our Nation,” appeared to impress at least some Greenlanders.
Wearing a MAGA hat, Nuuk resident Julius Sandgreen told DR that he thought Trump was “a hero,” and that he believed the president-elect“has a certain way of using power to protect Greenland.”
Denmark and the U.S. aren’t the only countries that retain a interest in the strategically and economically important Arctic region.
A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, said Thursday that the Kremlin was “very closely monitoring this rather dramatic development,” adding that while “the Arctic zone is an area of our national interests … we are interested in an atmosphere of peace and stability.”
Other leaders were similarly circumspect about Trump’s apparent threat to invade a fellow member of NATO. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Tuesday referred to the U.S. as Denmark’s “most important ally.”
Frederiksen scheduled a meeting Thursday to discuss Trump’s interest, with the country’s political leaders set to meet afterward.
Ordinary Danes, though, were simply baffled.
Copenhagen resident Birgitte Jakobsen told Reuters that “it’s a strange thing to threaten our allied countries, and I don’t understand what he is doing quite honestly.”
In Nuuk, some residents, like social worker Terkil Husum Isaksen, took offense to the president-elect’s threats, whether or not they were serious.
“We are a peaceful country and we want to live our own life,” he told DR. “And then to make threats like that, that is far beyond the line.”
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