Greenlanders “don’t want to be Americans” and must decide the future of the Arctic island themselves, politicians in the self-governing Danish territory have said, after Donald Trump warned the US would “do something whether they like it or not”,
The Guardian reports.
The leaders of five political parties in the Greenlandic parliament issued a united statement on Friday night, soon after the US president reiterated his threats to acquire the mineral-rich island.
“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danish, we want to be Greenlanders,” said the group, which included the island’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen. “The future of Greenland must be decided by Greenlanders.”
Stressing the desire of the people of Greenland, a former Danish colony, to have self-determination, they said: “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 was signed by Nielsen, his predecessor as prime minister, Múte B Egede, and Pele Broberg, Aleqa Hammond and Aqqalu C Jerimiassen.
At a meeting with oil and gas executives at the White House earlier on Friday, Trump had said Greenland was crucial for US national security. “We’re not going to have Russia or China occupy Greenland. That’s what they’re going to do if we don’t. So we’re going to be doing something with Greenland, either the nice way or the more difficult way,” he told reporters.
Trump is “actively” discussing making a potential offer to buy the island with his national security team, the White House confirmed earlier this week.
Greenlanders have repeatedly expressed their refusal to be part of the US, with 85% of the population rejecting the idea, according to a 2025 poll.
Polling also shows only 7% of Americans support the idea of a US military invasion of the territory, which the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, recently said would mean the end of “Nato and therefore post second world war security”.
She has urged Trump to stop threatening to take over the country, saying the US has “no right to annex any of the three countries in the Danish kingdom [meaning Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands]”.
Trump said on Friday: “If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t have a Nato right now.” When asked whether his priority was preserving the alliance or acquiring Greenland, he previously told the New York Times: “It may be a choice.”
