Trump’s Threats Toward Greenland Damage Historic U.S.—Denmark Relationship

As co-founders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949, the United States and Denmark have had an anomalous relationship; however, a multi-generational relationship has been put to the test as United States President Donald Trump made the latest of three total attempts by the U.S. to acquire Greenland from Denmark early into his second term.

The relationship between the members of NATO was evident in WWII after Denmark was invaded and fell to the Nazi invasion. Denmark was unable to supply and tend to their territories, including Greenland, for roughly four years. During this time, the U.S. stepped up and provided humanitarian aid to Greenlanders.

“The United States kept the Greenlandic people supplied, kept sending food, kept sending other supplies of material during the course of the war,” Dr. Mary Thompson-Jones said. “The relationship was a little deeper than simply military.”

Thompson-Jones is a professor of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval War College and was a Career Foreign Service Officer and Public Diplomacy Specialist for the U.S. Department of State for over 22 years. She said the views she expressed to Media Milwaukee “do not represent the U.S. Navy or the U.S. government,” and spoke on her own behalf.

The U.S. and Denmark, having been allies in NATO for two years in 1951, signed the Defense of Greenland Agreement, a significant milestone in the friendship that allowed the U.S. to have an expanded military presence in Greenland. Among the expanded military presence was the construction of the then-Thule Air Base, which was renamed in 2023 to the Pituffik Space Base. Thompson-Jones said “Pituffik” is an Inuit word, and the name change was made to honor the Inuit native people of Greenland.

“This was a way of honoring the fact that native people had been displaced many, many years ago when the base was first installed, and also a recognition that 57,000 people live in Greenland and work alongside the relatively small U.S. presence,” Thompson-Jones said. “We have about 150 people [service members] at any given time there, so it’s not a large base by any means.”

Trump’s renewed push in his second term for Greenland is the latest of the three total attempts the U.S. has made to control the world’s largest island. The first happened after World War II in 1946, when President Harry Truman offered to buy Greenland from Denmark for $100 million. The second, and first time under Trump, was in 2019, when Trump openly brought up the idea of purchasing Greenland, prompting then-Greenland MP Aaja Chemnitz to say in a X post, “No thanks to Trump buying Greenland!”

A Republican in the U.S. Senate who has been critical of Trump’s acquisition rhetoric is Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. In an interview following a June 25 Hudson Institute event in Washington, D.C., she said the president’s comments are making conversations between the long-time allies “harder.”

“When you suggest that we’re going to take over or we’re going to acquire, that’s scary,” Murkowski said. That’s threatening to the people who live there. It makes conversations harder, and I don’t think we want to have the conversations harder.”

As the U.S. pressure on Denmark to sell Greenland has mounted for 80 years, the most recent attempt has “strained relations considerably” between the long-time allies.

“This is reflected in Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s recent statement that the U.S. is no longer Denmark’s closest ally—a position it had held for more than half a century,” Dr. Marc Jacobsen said.

Jacobsen is an Associate and Assistant Professor at the Royal Danish Defence College in Copenhagen, where he conducts research, teaches, and advises on security, defense, and foreign policy in the Arctic, with a focus on Denmark. Before his time as a professor, Jacobsen spent six months as a researcher for the Danish Institute for International Studies studying how security dynamics in the Arctic affect the relationship between Greenland and Denmark.

Additionally, conflicts earlier in the year involving the apprehension of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and the ongoing war in Iran have shifted the Danes’ perception of the U.S. “significantly.”

“Consumers are increasingly seeking alternatives to American products, and fewer people express a desire to visit the U.S.,” Jacobsen said. “At the same time, more informed voices emphasize that many Americans do not share Trump’s views on Greenland.”

During a speech in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum in January, President Donald Trump ruled out using military force to acquire Greenland; however, Dr. Ole Wæver said people in Denmark and Greenland have concluded, “nothing can be ruled out.”

“Trump is sufficiently unpredictable, irrational, doesn’t really care for what is in the U.S. long-term interest, but pursues whatever is in his own personal interest and what he thinks works in the short term,” Wæver said. “Therefore, the fact that he would be completely crazy to do it is not an argument, because crazy is definitely an option.”

Wæver is a professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen. He is currently a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo. Wæver has been published in multiple journals and has written books about international relations, affairs and security.

Like Jacobsen, Wæver believes opinions on America have changed around the world, except he says they have changed “radically.”

In a longstanding alliance, the U.S. came to Denmark’s aid during WWII and the Cold War; that support has been mutual, according to Wæver. He says that after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, “Denmark sent more soldiers per capita than most to Afghanistan, [and] to Iraq.”

“The Danish leadership at the time went very far in the direction of a George W. Bush-like view of this very moralistic, ‘we are out there doing the right thing in the world,” Wæver said. “Denmark went extremely far, thinking it’s a deep commitment to the same values and visions. So, the disappointment for Denmark in what has happened is probably more brutal than anywhere else, because we were maybe the most naive in embracing an alliance with the U.S., making it quite emotional and deep.”

Jacobsen said Greenland and Denmark’s relationship goes back more than 300 years, a relationship that has had “dark chapters,” including one it is facing now amid a global race among superpowers for the Arctic.

One of the “dark chapters” was back in the 1960s through the 1990s, when the Danish healthcare system and Danish boarding schools for Greenlandic students attempted to disrupt the future of Greenlanders and birth rates by inserting intrauterine devices (IUDs) in Greenlandic women and girls without their consent or knowledge.

In a September 2025 independent investigation of the IUD scandal, the study found that over 4,070 IUDs were inserted by the end of 1970, but the official tally is unknown.

As the connection between the two has evolved, so has the increasing political presence Greenlanders have in the Danish Parliament and Greenland’s self-rule. Out of the 179 seats in the Danish Parliament, two seats are represented by Greenland; however, Wæver said “at least half” of the laws passed by the parliament do not apply to Greenland, leaving it up to Greenlandic politicians to make their own laws.

“A lot of the decisions are actually separate, but they [Greenlanders] have a presence,” Wæver said. “In essence, they [Greenlanders] get to vote one more time than the rest of us [Danes]. Like Scotland, if you’re in Scotland, you both have your own parliament in Scotland, but you also vote for the parliament in London.”

Greenland’s path to independence, which Jacobsen said Denmark respects and was outlined in the 2009 Act on Greenland Self-Government. He concluded that the current situation in Greenland has made Greenlandic politicians “more aware,” and a close relationship between Greenland and Denmark, as well as Europe, is the “preferable course.”

Jacobsen connected this to a January 13 joint press conference, which was originally released in Danish and translated into English, between Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and the Chairman of the Government of Greenland Jens-Frederik Nielsen.

“Greenland does not want to be owned by the United States,” said Nielsen at the press conference. “Greenland does not want to be ruled by the United States. Greenland does not want to be part of the United States. We choose the Greenland we know today, and which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Now we are facing a geopolitical crisis, and if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we will choose Denmark. We choose NATO, we choose the Kingdom of Denmark, we choose the EU. This is not the time for internal discussions and divisions. The time is to stand together and build on the community we know and what we want.”

On the icy steps of the Greenlandic Parliament building, Greenlandic politician Justus Hansen, one of the 31 members of the Greenlandic Parliament, known as the Inatsisartut, echoed those same claims.

“We have good relations with the Danish Parliament, especially due to our two representatives from Greenland,” said Hansen, who identifies with the Demokraatit Party, one of seven parties in Greenland. “Of course, one is from the opposite party, but we are expecting a good relation[ship] with those [representatives] and with the Danish Parliament. We have to see what kind of Danish Parliament they want to establish now.”

Whatever Greenland’s future entails, whether it is independence or remaining with Denmark, the relationship between the two is at the forefront of the talks. Along with Hansen, nearly everyone Media Milwaukee interviewed in Nuuk agreed that independence is the end goal; however, it is not feasible at this time. For now, Greenland is looking to strengthen its alliance with Denmark as threats from the U.S. continue to mount.

“Yeah, it would mean a lot [to] Greenlandic people, but we’re not ready,” said Sophie Marie Korniussen, a shopkeeper in Nuuk. “We can be ready if we get all kinds of machines [and] tool factories. But, [we] have only [a] shrimp factory and a fish factory. That’s all we have.”

---

This story is part of a semester-long investigative reporting project into Greenland’s people, history, and culture. It was created by an immersion journalism class in the Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies program at UW-Milwaukee. Other stories from the project are available on Edge of the Arctic: Greenland, the Land of the People.

This work was made possible through the support of MPC Endowment Ltd., the philanthropic affiliate of the Milwaukee Press Club, and a private donor.