Greenlanders ‘don’t want to be Americans’, say political leaders amid Trump threats | Greenland
Following Donald Trump’s warning that the US would “do something”, politicians in the self-governing Danish territory said Greenlanders “don’t want to be Americans” and should decide the Arctic island’s future for themselves. [there] “whether they like it or not.”
Leaders of the five political parties in Greenland’s parliament issued a joint statement on Friday night, just after the US president doubled down on threats to seize the mineral-rich island.
The group, including Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said, “We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders.” “The future of Greenland must be decided by Greenlanders.”
Emphasizing the desire for self-determination of the people of Greenland, a former Danish colony, the officials added: “No other country can interfere in this. We must decide the future of our country ourselves, without pressure to make a hasty decision, without delay and without the intervention of other countries.”
The declaration was signed by Nielsen, his predecessor as prime minister, Múte B. Egede and Pele Broberg, Aleqa Hammond and Aqqalu C. Jerimiassen.
In a meeting with oil and gas executives at the White House earlier Friday, the US president warned that Greenland was vital to US national security. “We will not allow Russia or China to invade Greenland. If we don’t, that’s what they will do. So we will either do something with Greenland the good way or the harder way,” he told reporters.
The White House confirmed earlier this week that Trump was “actively” discussing a potential bid to buy the largely autonomous Arctic region with his national security team.
Greenlanders have repeatedly stated their refusal to become part of the United States; According to a survey conducted in 2025, 85% of the population rejects the idea.
The survey also only shows 7% of Americans They support the idea of a US military occupation of the region, which Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen recently said would mean the end of “NATO and therefore post-World War II security”.
He called on Trump to drop his threat to take over the country, saying the US “has no right to annex any of the three countries in the kingdom of Denmark.” [meaning Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands]”.
On Friday, Trump said: “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have NATO right now.” Asked whether his priority was to preserve the NATO alliance or take Greenland, he told the New York Times: “It could be a choice.”
US General Alexus Grynkewich, head of NATO’s forces in Europe, responded to a question about Trump’s statement and said that he did not want to comment on whether the military alliance, which includes Denmark, could survive without the US.
But he responded on Friday by saying NATO was far from being in “crisis”.
“Up to this point there has been no impact on my work at the military level… I can only say that today we are still prepared to defend every square inch of alliance territory,” Grynkewich said.
“So I see that we are far from being in a crisis right now,” he added.
The United States has operated a military base on the northwestern tip of Greenland since World War II, where more than 100 military personnel are permanently stationed. Current agreements with Denmark will allow Trump to bring as many troops as he wants to the island.
But Trump told reporters on Friday that a lease wasn’t enough: “Countries are required to own property, and you defend property, you don’t defend leases. And we have to defend Greenland.”
Trump had previously made an offer to buy the island in 2019, but it was said that the island was not for sale. He has since claimed that Greenland, which has vast natural resources including rare earth minerals and potentially large oil and gas reserves, has been “covered everywhere” by Russian and Chinese ships.
Jess Berthelsen, president of Greenland’s national trade union confederation SIK, said in an interview with the Guardian on Friday that people in the region did not recognize the US president’s claims that Russian and Chinese ships were scattered in their waters. “We can’t see it, we can’t recognize it and we can’t understand it,” he said.
