Donald Trump has said he believes the US will take control of Greenland, after details emerged of a “horrendous” call in which he made economic threats to Denmark, which has said the territory is not for sale.
Speaking onboard Air Force One on Saturday, Trump said: “I think we’re going to have it,” and claimed that the Arctic island’s 57,000 residents “want to be with us”.
“I do believe Greenland, we’ll get because it really has to do with freedom of the world,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the United States, other than we’re the one that can provide the freedom.”
Since his re-election, Trump has reiterated his interest in acquiring the Arctic island, which is controlled by Denmark but has a large degree of autonomy.
His latest comments follow a “horrendous” phone call with the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, during which Trump was said to be aggressive and confrontational in his attempt to take over the island. Five current and former senior European officials told the Financial Timesthat the call had gone very badly. “It was horrendous,” said one of the sources. “It was a cold shower,” another told the paper. “Before, it was hard to take seriously, but I do think it is serious and potentially very dangerous.”
Trump was reported to have threatened Denmark, a Nato ally, with targeted tariffs, essentially taxes on Danish exports to the US.
The Danish prime minister’s office said it did “not recognise the interpretation of the conversation given by anonymous sources”.
Greenland’s prime minister, Múte Egede, who wants independence from Denmark, has said the territory is not for sale but is open for closer ties with the US in areas such as mining.
Writing on X on Saturday, the chair of the Danish parliament’s defence committee, Conservative MP Rasmus Jarlov, said Denmark would never hand over 57,000 of its citizens to become Americans against their will. “We understand that the US is a powerful country. We are not. It is up to the US how far they will go. But come what may. We are still going to say no.”
Strategically located between the US and Europe, Greenland is a potential geopolitical battleground, as the climate crisis worsens.
The rapid melting of the island’s huge ice sheets and glaciers has raised interest in oil drilling (although Greenland in 2021 stopped granting exploration licences) and mining for essential minerals including copper, lithium, cobalt and nickel.
Melting Arctic ice is also opening up new shipping routes, making alternatives to the Suez canal, while the Panama canal is seeing less traffic as a result of severe drought.
Since the cold war, Greenland is also home to a US military base and its ballistic missile early warning system.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, a former senior Danish official and expert on Greenland said that in 1917, the US president Woodrow Wilson gave Copenhagen assurances that the territory “will for ever be Danish”.
Tom Høyem, Denmark’s representative to Greenland between 1982 and 1987, also said that if Denmark were to sell Greenland, it would have to give the UK first refusal under the 1917 agreement.
The British government at that time demanded it should have the first right to buy Greenland, because of the island’s proximity to Canada, then a British dominion.
Earlier this month, Trump refused to rule out using economic or military coercion to take Greenland and the Panama Canal, which he also wants under US control.
Onboard Air Force One, Trump also reiterated his view that Canada should become a US state. “I view it as, honestly, a country that should be a state,” he told reporters. “Then, they’ll get much better treatment, much better care and much lower taxes and they’ll be much more secure.”
This article was amended on 26 January 2025. An earlier version said the Suez canal was seeing less traffic as a result of severe drought; the intended reference was to the Panama canal.
