Donald Trump Doubles Down on Greenland Claim After ‘Horrendous’ Call

Donald Trump doubled down on his demands to gain control of Greenland on Saturday, when he told reporters on Air Force One that the island’s 57,000 residents “want to be with us.”

There was a fiery call between the U.S. president and Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen last week, which one of the five current and former senior European officials briefed on it described to the U.K. newspaper Financial Times as “horrendous.”

Another told the newspaper that it was a “cold shower” to realize that Trump is serious in his attempt to acquire the island: “Before, it was hard to take it seriously. But I do think it is serious, and potentially very dangerous.”

Newsweek contacted Trump’s team, Denmark’s embassy in the U.S., and Greenland’s Prime Minister’s Office for comment on Sunday morning, outside of standard working hours.

Why It Matters

Greenland is in a strategic position in the Arctic Ocean, which will likely put the island at the center of growing competition in the region and makes it key to avoid potential future aggressions from Russia.

The island is also rich in natural resources—including rare earth metals such as uranium and iron—and sits in the middle of two potential shipping routes through the Arctic, which could reduce shipping times and bypass the Suez and Panama canals as Arctic sea ice melts.

What To Know

Already during his first presidency, Trump had floated the idea of buying Greenland. Last month, he revived these calls, saying it was “an absolute necessity” for the U.S. to own the island for the country’s national and “economic security.”

While it already has wide-range autonomy and it is believed that it will one day gain independence, Greenland belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark. Though the island’s government has expressed interest in getting closer to the U.S. and receiving the country’s support in defense and mining, both Denmark and Greenland’s prime ministers have said that the latter is not for sale.

Despite this, Trump is not backing down on his claims that the U.S. will get it under his control eventually. He recently told reporters he could not rule out he’ll take the island by either military or economic force.

“I think we’re going to have it,” Trump said on Saturday in the press room on board of the presidential plane, only days after newspapers reported that Frederiksen had told him the island was not for sale. “I think the people want to be with us,” the president added.

“I don’t really know what claim Denmark has to it, but it would be a very unfriendly act if they didn’t allow that to happen because it’s for the protection of the free world,” Trump told reporters.

“It has nothing to do with the United States other than that we’re the one that can provide freedom. They can’t,” he added.

What People Are Saying

In a post published on Truth Social, Donald Trump wrote:“I am hearing that the people of Greenland are ‘MAGA’. Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our nation. We will protect it, and cherish it, from a very vicious outside world. Make Greenland Great Again.”

Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic member of Denmark’s Parliament, told CNN: “Greenland is not MAGA. Greenland is not going to be MAGA. [ …] I think the majority in Greenland, they find it quite scary, actually, and quite uncomfortable that there’s so much focus on Greenland and that the U.S. is, actually, in a disrespectful way, showing that they would like to be buying Greenland or controlling Greenland. That is not what the population in Greenland wants.”

Greenland’s Prime Minister Múte Egede wrote on Facebook on Tuesday: “Let me repeat—Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland. Our future and fight for independence is our business. While others, including Danes and Americans, are entitled to their opinions, we should not be caught up in the hysteria and external pressures distract us from our path. The future is ours and ours to shape. [ …] Every day is spent working to become independent.”

What Happens Next

Trump’s persistence in his calls to buy the Arctic island could alienate Greenland and Denmark, two U.S. close allies, and have the unintended consequences of undermining cooperation in the Arctic, experts warned.

“Somehow, we have rapidly moved from how inappropriate this proposition is to examining its feasibility and likelihood,” Jennifer Spence, director of the Arctic Initiative at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, wrote in a recent article.

“The United States will not be made safer by dominating its neighbors. Security in the Arctic will not be achieved through acts of aggression against U.S. allies. Global stability will not be sustained if the rules-based order becomes optional.”