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‘We do not want to be Americans’: Greenland parties reject Trump’s threats
Joint statement by all five political parties elected to Greenland’s parliament says island’s future must be decided by its people
An aerial view shows a fjord in western Greenland [File: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters]
By News Agencies
By News Agencies
Published On 10 Jan 2026
Greenland’s political parties have rejected United States President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to take control of the Arctic island, saying that its future must be decided by its people.
Trump has suggested using force to seize the mineral-rich Danish autonomous territory to prevent Russia or China from occupying the strategically located island, raising concerns worldwide.
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Greenland’s political parties have rejected United States President Donald Trump’s repeated threats to take control of the Arctic island, saying that its future must be decided by its people.
Trump has suggested using force to seize the mineral-rich Danish autonomous territory to prevent Russia or China from occupying the strategically located island, raising concerns worldwide.
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“We emphasise once again our desire for the US contempt for our country to end,” the leaders of all five political parties elected to Greenland’s parliament said in a joint statement late on Friday.
“We do not want to be Americans, we do not want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” they said in the statement, posted on social media by Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
“No other country can meddle in this. We must decide our country’s future ourselves – without pressure to make a hasty decision, without procrastination, and without interference from other countries,” the statement added.
Why Trump says getting Greenland is about defence
A meeting of Greenland’s parliament, the Inatsisartut, will be brought forward to ensure that a fair and comprehensive political debate takes place and that the people’s rights are secured, the leaders said.
The date of the meeting has not yet been determined. Greenland’s parliament last met in November and had been scheduled to meet again on February 3, according to its website.
The statement by the political parties came hours after Trump on Friday said he would “do something on Greenland whether they like it or not”, and that the US military presence in the island under a 1951 agreement with fellow NATO member Denmark is not enough to guarantee the island’s defence.
European capitals have been scrambling to come up with a coordinated response after the White House said this week that Trump wanted to buy Greenland and refused to rule out military action.
Rubio to meet Greenland officials: US has threatened to acquire Danish territory
Trump’s renewed push for Greenland, after US military intervention in Venezuela, worries many of the island’s 57,000 inhabitants, whose widely held goal is to eventually become an independent nation.
A 2009 agreement between Greenland and Denmark explicitly recognised Greenlanders’ right to independence if they choose, but while all five parties say they want independence, they differ on how and when to achieve it.
The coalition currently in power in Greenland is not in favour of hasty independence. The only opposition party, Naleraq, which won 24.5 percent of the vote in the 2025 legislative election, wants to cut ties as quickly as possible.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that an American takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to meet next week with Denmark’s foreign minister and representatives from Greenland. Trump had offered to buy Greenland in 2019 during his first presidential term, but was rebuffed.
“We emphasise once again our desire for the US contempt for our country to end,” the leaders of all five political parties elected to Greenland’s parliament said in a joint statement late on Friday.
“We do not want to be Americans, we do not want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” they said in the statement, posted on social media by Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.
“No other country can meddle in this. We must decide our country’s future ourselves – without pressure to make a hasty decision, without procrastination, and without interference from other countries,” the statement added.
Why Trump says getting Greenland is about defence
A meeting of Greenland’s parliament, the Inatsisartut, will be brought forward to ensure that a fair and comprehensive political debate takes place and that the people’s rights are secured, the leaders said.
The date of the meeting has not yet been determined. Greenland’s parliament last met in November and had been scheduled to meet again on February 3, according to its website.
The statement by the political parties came hours after Trump on Friday said he would “do something on Greenland whether they like it or not”, and that the US military presence in the island under a 1951 agreement with fellow NATO member Denmark is not enough to guarantee the island’s defence.
European capitals have been scrambling to come up with a coordinated response after the White House said this week that Trump wanted to buy Greenland and refused to rule out military action.
Rubio to meet Greenland officials: US has threatened to acquire Danish territory
Trump’s renewed push for Greenland, after US military intervention in Venezuela, worries many of the island’s 57,000 inhabitants, whose widely held goal is to eventually become an independent nation.
A 2009 agreement between Greenland and Denmark explicitly recognised Greenlanders’ right to independence if they choose, but while all five parties say they want independence, they differ on how and when to achieve it.
The coalition currently in power in Greenland is not in favour of hasty independence. The only opposition party, Naleraq, which won 24.5 percent of the vote in the 2025 legislative election, wants to cut ties as quickly as possible.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that an American takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is due to meet next week with Denmark’s foreign minister and representatives from Greenland. Trump had offered to buy Greenland in 2019 during his first presidential term, but was rebuffed.
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Greenland is NOT in danger from Russia nor China, but is in serious danger from WankeeLand
There are twice as many Puerto Ricans in Manhattan alone than there are Greenlanders, so absorbing them is no problem.
ReplyDeleteThey will love Anchorage Alaska or stay put in Nuuk.
Greenland as State #51.
$1 trillion should do it. Every Dane gets $170,000.
Greenlanders don’t want to be Danish either. Bad history.
But as a standalone country they will be swallowed up by a Global Bully. So please choose wisely.
Greenlanders don’t want to be part of USA, that's very clear
Delete100k is on the low side.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.reuters.com/world/europe/trump-administration-mulls-payments-sway-greenlanders-join-us-2026-01-08/
Exclusive: Trump administration mulls payments to sway Greenlanders to join US
By Gram Slattery
January 9, 20268:55 AM GMT+8Updated January 9, 2026
Summary
Greenland, Denmark say they're not for sale; European leaders stand behind Copenhagen, Nuuk
Greenland talks in White House have intensified in recent days
Jan 8 (Reuters) - U.S. officials have discussed sending lump sum payments to Greenlanders as part of a bid to convince them to secede from Denmark and potentially join the United States, according to four sources familiar with the matter.
While the exact dollar figure and logistics of any payment are unclear, U.S. officials, including White House aides, have discussed figures ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 per person, said two of the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
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The idea of directly paying residents of Greenland, an overseas territory of Denmark, offers one explanation of how the U.S. might attempt to "buy" the island of 57,000 people, despite authorities' insistence in Copenhagen and Nuuk that Greenland is not for sale.
The tactic is among various plans being discussed by the White House for acquiring Greenland, including potential use of the U.S. military. But it risks coming off as overly transactional and even degrading to a population that has long debated its own independence and its economic dependence on Denmark.
"Enough is enough ... No more fantasies about annexation," Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday after U.S. President Donald Trump again told reporters the U.S. needed to acquire the island.
Denmark has not been kind colonisers, even in living memory.
ReplyDeleteTraditionally, Danes have viewed themselves as the world's nicest imperialists ever since they started to colonise Greenland in the 1720s.
This self-image has been eroded in recent years, however, by a string of revelations about past high-handedness in dealing with the island's population.
In particular, there have been reports of serious wrongs committed against Greenlanders - not in the distant past, but within living memory.
This included a controversial large-scale contraceptive campaign. A joint investigation by authorities in Denmark and Greenland is examining the fitting of intrauterine devices (coils) into women of child-bearing age on the island, often without their consent or even their knowledge.
It has been reported this happened to almost half of all the island's women of child-bearing age between 1966 and 1970.
Last December, Greenland's prime minister Múte Egede described this as "straightforward genocide, carried out by the Danish state against the Greenland population".
He made the remark while talking to the Danish Broadcasting Corporation in an interview that dealt generally with relations between Greenland and Denmark.
Also, in the 1960s and 1970s hundreds of children from the island were taken from their mothers, often on dubious grounds, to be reared by foster parents in Denmark. In some cases, this happened without the consent of the biological mothers, and in other instances, they were not informed that their ties with their children would be cut completely.
This left a raw emotional wound that often was not healed decades later. Some of the adopted Greenlandic children were later able to trace their biological parents, but many others were not.
A small group demanded compensation from the Danish state in the summer of 2024. If they are successful, it could pave the way for a large number of similar claims by other adoptees.
Opinion polls carried out in recent years indicate a fairly consistent pattern in which around two-thirds of Greenland's population say they want to be independent. A survey carried out in 2019 showed support of 67.7% for the move among adult Greenlanders.
A country of 55,000 citizens three times the size of Texas is simply not viable. Not enough people to defend themselves. They are dreaming.
ReplyDelete