Trump NATO criticism sparks Danish veteran protest at US Embassy in Denmark

Hundreds of Danish protesters, many of them veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, demonstrated in front of the US Embassy in Copenhagen on Saturday.

The group was protesting President Donald Trump’s pressure for the United States to seize Greenland from Denmark and his statement in Davos that NATO forces were “a little behind” fighting alongside the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“They have a feeling that they have been betrayed,” Carsten Rasmussen, president of the Danish Veterans Association, told the Associated Press. “And of course they were angry about it. They deployed. They fought the Americans. They fought the British. They fought together. They bled together. And as you heard here today in front of the American embassy, ​​52 of them never returned.”

Forty-four Danish soldiers died in Afghanistan; this was the highest death toll per capita for a NATO country in the war, and a further eight soldiers died in Iraq. Denmark’s population in 2025 was just over 6 million.

EUROPEAN LEADERS ‘THERE IS THE RISK OF A DANGEROUS DOWNWARD SPIRAL’ TRUMP ABOUT Tariffs on Greenland

During the protest, demonstrators hung 52 flags with the names of the martyrs in front of the embassy.

“Behind all these flags there is a man, a soldier, a young man,” Danish Lieutenant Colonel Niels Christian Koefoed, who served in Afghanistan, told Reuters.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Trump’s remarks about being left “a little behind” “insulting and frankly appalling”, and Trump wrote on Truth Social: “The GREAT and very BRAVE soldiers of the United Kingdom will always be on the side of the United States of America!”

However, he did not accept the sacrifices of other NATO troops.

The Danish Veterans and Veterans Support group, which organized the protest, said in a statement, “Denmark has always stood by the USA, and when the USA asked us to, we showed up in crisis regions of the world.” he said. “We feel let down and ridiculed by the Trump Administration, which has deliberately ignored Denmark’s struggle shoulder to shoulder with the United States.”

Hundreds of Danish veterans and other demonstrators protested outside the US Embassy in Copenhagen on Saturday. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

PRINCE HARRY RESPONDED TO TRUMP WITH HIS CRITICISM OF NATO: ‘I LOST MY FRIENDS’ IN AFGHANISTAN

The group added: “Words cannot express how sad we are that Denmark’s contributions and sacrifices to the struggle for democracy, peace and freedom are forgotten in the White House.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.

In Greenland earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker told Fox News Digital that NATO “tends to overreact.”

Greenland’s importance has been clear for years as ice melts, reshaping the Arctic and opening new pathways, Whitaker said. “The security of the high north, which I talked about a lot before this happened, is the most important issue,” he said. “As the ice melts and roads open up in the Arctic, the security of the Arctic and thus the security of Greenland, the northern flank of the continental United States, becomes vital.”

Protesters felt “insulted” by President Donald Trump’s comments that NATO troops were “a little behind” in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

He emphasized that Greenland’s location makes it the center of US defense planning. “If you think of Greenland as part of access to maritime assets, monitoring, awareness and fortification of this part of the Western Hemisphere is vital to the long-term security of the United States,” Whitaker said. he said.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APPLICATION

He said recent diplomacy showed that the issue could be resolved without tension. “I know there was a very successful meeting between the Danes and Greenland and Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio, so I think that will be constructive.”