Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, has suddenly become a geopolitical pressure point. Trump has repeatedly argued that the island’s location and resources make it indispensable to American defense interests, particularly in the context of competition with Russia and China in the Arctic. He has also suggested that Denmark lacks the capacity to protect Greenland adequately, a claim Danish leaders strongly reject.
Those remarks have landed badly not just in Copenhagen, but in Greenland itself. Over recent weeks, demonstrations under the slogan “Hands off Greenland” have taken place both on the island and in major Danish cities. Protesters have accused the U.S. president of treating Greenland as a commodity rather than a homeland, and of ignoring the will of its people. According to reporting by BBC, opinion polls indicate that roughly 85 percent of Greenlanders oppose any move to join the United States.
