Christian Ulloriaq Jeppesen remembers how it all started.
In 2019, when Donald J. Trump took the first term as president, Mr. Trump floated the idea of America buying the island of Greenland. At the time, many people in Greenland (and in Denmark, the controlling European country) thought his suggestion was a joke.
“Everybody said, 'Ha-ha, you can't just buy land, they don't mean it,'” said Mr. Jeppesen, a native Greenlander and radio producer, by phone. “Obviously it was the wrong way to take it. Look where we are today.”
Now Mr. Trump has doubled down on his insistence that the United States must take Greenland for security reasons. And that makes Greenlanders ask the same questions as everyone else, but with more discomfort.
Is Mr. Trump just explodes again, floating a bogus merger plan that you probably know is simple?
Or are you serious?
Based on his words a few weeks ago, Mr. Trump seems completely serious. Don't forget that the Danish leadership said that the land is not for sale, and its future must be decided by the local people.
“For the purpose of national security and liberty throughout the world, the United States of America feels that ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity,” Mr. Trump in late December in a social media post announcing his choice to be ambassador to Denmark. .
In a press conference on Tuesday, the president-elect took a surprising step: He refused to send troops to find Greenland.
France and Germany took Mr. Trump so much so that both issued statements on Wednesday defending Greenland's territorial integrity and warning against the threat of any military action.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany said the principle of non-violation of borders applies to all countries, “whether it is very small or very strong.” The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said that “there is clearly no question” of threatening the “sovereign borders” of another country.
“Do I think the United States will attack Greenland? The answer is no,” Mr Barrot told France Inter radio.
Another sign of Mr. Trump in Greenland arrived on Tuesday when his son Donald Trump Jr. suddenly appears on the island.
The president-elect's son arrived in the afternoon in Greenland's capital, Nuuk, visited some sites, including a statue of an 18th-century Danish-Norwegian missionary, and was hosted by a Danish Trump supporter. He said the reason for the trip was personal, not legal, but the president-elect wrote about his son and “various representatives” who were visiting him and said, “MAKE GREENLAND AND BE PAINFUL.”
“All of this is scary,” said Mr. Jeppesen.
At 836,000 square kilometers, Greenland is the largest island in the world, about a quarter the size of the United States. It is an autonomous region of Denmark and elects two representatives to the Danish Parliament and 31 to its own, which oversees many aspects of the island's government. Denmark, however, retains control over defense, security affairs and aspects of international affairs.
Its location and its shape make it attractive to Mr. Trump on several levels.
Greenland is conveniently located on the top of the world, east of Canada near the Arctic Ocean, and is home to a major US military base. It is full of mineral resources such as cobalt, copper and nickel.
And as climate change melts the ice, it opens up new avenues in the Arctic, which is becoming a hotly contested region for shipping, energy and other natural resources, as well as military deployments.
The burst of attention falls on Greenland. More Greenlanders yearn for independence, and many feel more hatred for Denmark, which has been a watchdog for decades. Greenland has a small population for its size, and the majority of Greenland's 56,000 inhabitants are Inuit, who are part of a group of people who live in Canada and Alaska.
The Greenlandic language is completely different from Danish. Many people follow a culture and beliefs that are very different from those of Western Europe. And, like Native peoples in the United States and elsewhere, they have been treated unequally for a long time.
Greenlanders' discontent with Denmark grew two years ago after revelations emerged about Danish doctors inserting thousands of indigenous women and girls with intrauterine contraceptive devices in the 1960s and 1970s, often without their knowledge.
Danish officials have repeatedly said that Greenland is not for sale, although they have emphasized their desire for warm relations with the United States and expressed their openness to negotiations. Last month, Denmark's king jumped into the fray by suddenly changing the country's coat of arms to the symbols of Greenland and the Faroe Islands (another area under Danish control) – a polar bear and a sheep.
In this debate about who he is, many people have been confused about the purpose of Mr.
“Is it just a distraction?” asked Ulrik Pram Gad, senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. “Or risk-based diplomacy?”
Aviaaja Sandgren, a nurse who lives in the small town of Qaqortoq (all towns in Greenland are small), does not want to be part of the United States.
“We will lose a lot of benefits,” he said when reached by phone on Wednesday. “We have free education, educational grants, free health care and free medicine. Everything is free here in Greenland.”
“I know they don't have that in the US,” he said.
Denmark ruled Greenland as a colony from the 1700s until the mid-20th century and heavily suppressed the Aboriginal culture. During World War II, the United States set up bases in Greenland to keep it out of Nazi hands after Germany occupied Denmark, and when the war ended, it offered to buy the island from Denmark, which was refused.
Greenland was annexed to Denmark in 1953, with the Danes helping to fix the economy, transport and education systems. In 1979 Greenland gained limited autonomy in internal affairs and established its own Parliament.
Thirty years later, Denmark extended Greenland's autonomy and under that agreement, the people of Greenland have the right to hold a referendum on independence. The reason it hasn't happened yet, analysts say, is because Greenland is still heavily dependent on Denmark for many technical resources – including doctors, nurses and teachers – and half a billion dollars a year in funding.
Aaja Chemnitz, one of two representatives from Greenland in the Danish Parliament, said he was concerned that Mr. “We risk being a football player in the game between Denmark and the US,” he said.
Greenland benefits from Denmark's welfare system, he said, and it would be worse off if it became part of the United States.
“I saw the American plan,” said Ms. Chemnitz, who lived in New York while working for the United Nations. “I know how dangerous equality can be.”
Mr. Jeppesen, a radio producer, said that Mr. Greenland is not just a big part of the world. It is a nation, a story, a country of origin.
“There's this great pride you get from being one of the 56,000,” Mr. Jeppesen. “Greenland is amazing, beautiful, the most beautiful country in the world.”
“And it is a country fighting for freedom,” he said. “It's not part of the building you can buy.”
Steven Erlanger contributed reporting from Berlin, Aurelien Breeden from Paris and Chris Schuetze from Berlin.
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