Greenland’s leadership is pushing back on President Donald Trump as he and his administration call on the US to take control of the island. Several Trump administration officials have backed the president’s calls for a takeover of Greenland, with many citing national security reasons.
“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen and four party leaders said in a statement on Friday evening. The Associated Press. Greenland, a self-governing Danish territory and a longtime US ally, has repeatedly rejected Trump’s statements about the US takeover of the island.
Greenland party leaders reiterated that the island’s “future must be decided by the Greenland people.”
“As Greenlandic party leaders, we would like to reiterate our desire for the United States’ contempt for our country to end,” the statement said.
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Greenland has rejected the Trump administration’s bid to take over Danish territory. (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix / AFP via Getty Images; Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump was asked about the drive to acquire Greenland during a roundtable discussion with oil executives on Friday. The president, who insists Greenland is critical to U.S. security, said it is important for the country to take this step so it can defeat its adversaries.
“We’re going to do something about Greenland whether they like it or not,” Trump said Friday. “Because if we don’t do it, Russia or China will take over Greenland, and we won’t have Russia or China as a neighbor.”
Trump hosted nearly two dozen oil executives at the White House on Friday to discuss investments in Venezuela following the historic arrest of President Nicolás Maduro on January 3.
“We don’t want Russia there,” Trump said of Venezuela on Friday when asked whether the country appears to be a US ally. China there. And besides, we don’t want Russia or China going to Greenland. If we don’t take Greenland, you could have Russia or China as a neighbor. That’s not going to happen.”
Trump said the US is in control of Venezuela after Maduro’s capture and extradition.
Nielsen has previously dismissed comparisons between Greenland and Venezuela, saying his island wanted to improve its relations with the US. according to Reuters.
A “Make America Go Away” baseball cap, distributed for free by Danish artist Jens Martin Skibsted, will be arranged on March 30, 2025 in Sisimiut, Greenland. (Juliette Pavy/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Monday that Trump’s threats to annex Greenland could spell the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
“I also want to make it clear that if the US chooses to militarily attack another NATO country, everything stops, including our NATO and therefore the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2.
That same day, Nielsen said in a statement on Facebook that Greenland was “not an object of superpower rhetoric.”
Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen stands next to Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen during a visit to the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen on April 28, 2025. (Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)
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White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller doubled to Trump’s comments, to CNN in an interview on Monday that Greenland “should be part of the United States.”
CNN host Jake Tapper pressed Miller on whether the Trump administration could rule out military action against the Arctic island.
‘The United States is the power of NATO. If the United States wants to secure the Arctic, it must do so protect and defend NATO and NATO interests, Greenland must of course be part of the United States,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
