Donald Trump Jr. is up against a large polar bear.
In the most recent indication of the president-elect’s intention to assume control of the enormous Arctic island, he arrived in icy Greenlandon on Tuesday aboard his father’s Trump Force One private jet. However, the United States is in for a battle if the Danish king’s most recent action is any indication.
For the first time in over 500 years, King Frederik, who took over the Danish throne following Queen Margrethe II’s abdication last year, altered the royal coat of arms. Historians saw this as a direct message to Greenland and possibly to Trump.
In his New Year’s speech, the king declared, “We are all united and each of us committed for the kingdom of Denmark,” adding, “all the way to Greenland.”
The Danish territories of Greenland and the Faroe Islands now have their own quadrants, symbolized by a bear and a ram, in the updated coat of arms, which was published on January 1. The royal household described how “the polar bear became Greenland’s heraldic symbol under Frederik the 3rd in 1666.”
Peter Aagaard, an associate professor at Roskilde University in Denmark, told NBC News that they are a declaration and a symbolic indication to the people of both locations that they are important (and equal) portions of the kingdom.
The largest island in the world, Greenland, is situated between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans and is nearer New York than Copenhagen. Although it was ruled by Denmark since the fourteenth century, it gained its independence in 1979.
Trump was interested in the island during his first term in office because it has significant mineral deposits and a sizable U.S. Air Force facility.
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