Denmark’s prime minister has let loose on Donald Trump after the president once again doubled down on his long-running fantasy of taking over Greenland.
“We do need Greenland, absolutely,” Trump, 79, said on Sunday during an interview with The Atlantic about the United States’ invasion of Venezuela and the abduction of President Nicolás Maduro.
Hours later, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen rebuked the self-proclaimed peace president for thirsting after the island, a semi-autonomous territory within the Danish kingdom.
“I must say this very clearly to the United States,” Frederiksen said in a statement posted to X. “The United States has no legal basis to annex one of the three countries of the Kingdom of Denmark.”
Frederiksen, 48, reminded Trump that the Danish kingdom—Greenland included—sits under NATO’s umbrella and is protected by the alliance’s collective defense guarantee. She also noted that the U.S. enjoys “broad access to Greenland” under a longstanding defense agreement between the two countries.
“I therefore strongly urge the United States to cease its threats against a historically close ally, and against another country and another people who have stated very clearly that they are not for sale,” the Danish leader said.
Trump has returned again and again to the idea of seizing Greenland during his second term, refusing to rule out using the military to take the mineral-rich island by force.
“I never take military force off the table. But I think there’s a good possibility that we could do it without military force,” Trump told Meet the Press in March, the same month Vice President JD Vance visited a U.S. military base on the island. Vance argued on the trip that “Denmark hasn’t done a good job at keeping Greenland safe.”
In his own statement on Sunday, Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen tore into Trump over his “disrespectful” comments and his administration’s “unacceptable” rhetoric.
“When the President of the United States speaks of ‘needing Greenland’ and links us to Venezuela and military intervention, it is not only wrong. It is disrespectful,” Nielsen said.
The 34-year-old premier told Trump, “Our country is not an object in great-power rhetoric. We are a people. A country. A democracy. That must be respected — especially by close and loyal friends.”
Nielsen said Greenland was “open to conversations” but said they need to take place through “proper channels and in full respect of international law.”
“Threats, pressure, and talk of annexation have no place between friends,” he said. “That is not how one speaks to a people who have repeatedly demonstrated responsibility, stability, and loyalty. Enough is enough. No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of annexation.”
Greenland’s roughly 57,000 residents have lived under extensive self-government since 1979, with Denmark continuing to oversee defense and foreign policy.
Polls show the idea of joining the U.S. is deeply unpopular, with one survey finding that 85 percent of Greenlanders oppose leaving Denmark to become part of the United States.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
