The 56,000 residents of Greenland lived their lives on the sparsely populated mid-Atlantic island, away from the spotlight of the world, until lately. They are now on the incoming U.S. president’s shopping list, along with their political future.
This week, President-elect Donald Trump reaffirmed his desire to seize control of Canada, the Panama Canal, and the autonomous Danish territory. He stated to reporters that he would not rule out using economic or military power to annex the Arctic island.
The same day, his son Donald Trump Jr. traveled to Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, which was heavily snow-covered. He would have discovered a mixed response and some fear among regular Greenlanders to Trump senior’s idea of using force if he had looked past the few of fervent fans wearing MAGA caps who greeted him.
According to Tittus Dalager, a building architect, it’s “really scary,” as he told CNN. We know him to be straightforward in his statements. However, it appears somewhat abruptly.
Edvard Jensen, another local, expressed his disdain to DR, saying he didn’t think Trump would invade Greenland. All he wants is attention, which he now has.
The confusion that European leaders voiced Wednesday in reaction to Trump’s remarks was shared by Greenlanders. The foreign minister of France declared that any attack within European borders would not be accepted, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed confusion over the remarks made by the incoming president.
Since the 14th century, Denmark has ruled over the largest island in the world, and the majority of its residents are Inuit. However, being sold to their American equivalents by the Danish government is scarcely part of the strategy for the autonomous territory’s long-standing independence struggle.
Aaja Chemnitz, a member of the Greenland parliament, told NBC News that the majority of Greenlanders want to be independent and that we are a proud Indigenous people with the right to self-determination rather than some kind of tradeable good.
In an interview, Chemnitz stated that Greenland is not for sale and never will be, even though the island is open to more cooperation with the United States, Canada, and other like-minded nations interested in an equal relationship.
Trump’s proposal to seize control of Greenland has also been rejected by Prime Minister M te Egede.
Many Greenlanders, both pro- and anti-independence, may agree on Trump’s ambition to purchase the Arctic region, even though the independence question has dominated Greenlandic politics for a long time.
Inger Skydsbjerg, an administrative employee in Nuuk, told Danish news channel DKTV that she was “not so happy” with Trump’s plans and supported keeping ties to Copenhagen.
Denmark is one of us. Here in Nuuk, Greenland, we have the Arctic Command, which protects us. “So, we’re happy with this,” she stated.
Denmark has stated unequivocally that it has no intention of ceding its land.
In his New Year’s speech, Danish King Frederik stated that “we are all united… all the way to Greenland” by altering the country’s iconic royal coat of arms this month to highlight the polar bear, a Greenlandic emblem.
Whether or not they are related, the president-elect has always talked about buying Greenland because he has been interested in the region since his first term in office because of its sizable U.S. Air Force base and unexplored rare mineral resources.
At least some Greenlanders seemed impressed by Trump’s remarks this week on his Truth Social platform, which stated that Greenland is a fantastic destination and that the people will greatly benefit if and when it joins our country.
Julius Sandgreen, a native of Nuuk, told DR that he thought Trump was a hero and that he felt the president-elect had a specific way of using power to defend Greenland while wearing a MAGA hat.
There are other nations that are still interested in the strategically and economically significant Arctic region besides the United States and Denmark.
“The Kremlin is very closely monitoring this rather dramatic development,” Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, stated Thursday. “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 wary about Trump’s alleged invasion threat on a NATO ally. The United States is Denmark’s most significant ally, according to Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Tuesday.
The nation’s political leaders are due to meet following Frederiksen’s meeting on Thursday to discuss Trump’s interest.
However, regular Danes were just perplexed.
Birgitte Jakobsen, a resident of Copenhagen, told Reuters that, quite honestly, I don’t understand what he is doing and that it’s a bizarre thing to threaten our allies.
Whether or not the president-elect’s threats were real, some Nuuk inhabitants, such as social worker Terkil Husum Isaksen, took offense.
He told DR, “We want to live our own life and we are a peaceful country.” And that’s beyond over the line to make threats like that.