Why Europe’s far right has split with Trump over Greenland
NUUK, Greenland — A year ago, days before Donald Trump came back to power, the head of the Danish People’s Party I took a trip to Mar-a-Lago. Morten Messerschmidt thought that he and Trump had a common view on the dangers of European integration. He told the local media of the time that together they could make the West great again.
Messerschmidt thought that in Europe, just as in the United States, it was “nationale suverænitet” (national sovereignty) that over the centuries had given countries large and small the means to build their own cultures, traditions, and institutions. These were the values that conservative movements across the European continent fought to protect.
But Messerschmidt now finds itself on the defensive. The far-right politician is abruptly distancing himself from the American president, who has intermittently made aggressive plays over the past year to annex Greenland and target Danish borders that have existed for roughly 300 years.
Trump this week backed away from military threats to the island. “This is all access; there’s no end,” he said in an interview with Fox Business on Thursday. When asked if he was still considering taking on the candidate, Trump said: “It’s possible. Anything is possible.”
Although Trump has focused on Greenland since his first term, he refused to meet with Messerschmidt at Mar-a-Lago last January. Instead, the Danish politician found himself discussing the issue with the president’s ex-wife, Marla Maples.
“It is unhealthy to portray me as someone who serves a purpose outside Denmark and sympathizes with threats to our kingdom,” Messerschmidt wrote on Facebook this weekend. “This is a slander.”
The Danish People’s Party is one of several far-right groups across Europe aligned with Trump’s MAGA movement with its passionate opposition to immigration and related issues, suddenly rebelling against the administration it once viewed as an ideological ally.
The president’s moves now force them to reconcile their alliance with Trump with a core principle on the political right; nationalism is largely defined by people and place across historical time periods — or, as Trump often said on the campaign trail, “without borders, you don’t have a country.”
Alice Weidel, co-chair of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany Party (AfD), said in a statement in Berlin, “Donald Trump violated the main promise of the campaign, that is, his promise not to intervene in other countries.” His colleague added: “It is clear that Wild West methods must be rejected.”
This rupture could jeopardize the Trump administration’s stated goals of a future Europe that is more conservative and aligned with the Republican Party; This plan relied on strengthening the same parties that are now questioning their ties to the president.
In its national security strategy released in November, the White House said it would “develop resistance to Europe’s current course within European nations” in hopes of restoring “Europe’s civilizational self-confidence and Western identity.”
And it’s unclear whether the president’s decision to back down on his most aggressive threats will be enough to contain the diplomatic damage. “The process of reaching this deal has clearly damaged trust between allies,” former UK prime minister and Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak told Bloomberg on Thursday.
Trump’s pressure campaign urging Ukraine to accept borders redrawn by a vengeful Russia had already strained relations between his inner circle and far-right movements in Europe. But some prominent right-wing leaders say his aggressive stance on Greenland represents a bridge too far.
Addressing growing concerns about the plan in Switzerland on Wednesday, Trump left the threats still up in the air, warning European leaders that he would “remember” if they blocked the US takeover.
“Friends can disagree in private and that’s OK; that’s part of life, part of politics,” Nigel Farage, leader of Britain’s far-right Reform UK party, told House Speaker Mike Johnson in London earlier this week. “But for a U.S. president to threaten tariffs unless we agree that he can take over Greenland in any way possible without even getting the consent of the Greenlandic people — I mean, that’s very hostile behavior.”
In France, the head of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party said the US was offering Europe “a choice: accept dependence disguised as partnership, or act as sovereign powers capable of defending our interests.”
France has the world’s second largest maritime exclusive economic zone after the United States, with its overseas territories in the Pacific, Caribbean and Indian oceans. If Trump can seize Greenland by force, what’s stopping him or any other great power from seizing France’s islands?
“When a US president threatens a European region using trade pressure, that’s coercion, not dialogue. And our credibility is at stake,” said Jordan Bardella, the party’s young leader.
“Greenland has become a strategic pivot in a world returning to imperial logic,” he added. “To yield today would set a dangerous precedent.”
