With just over a week to go to his inauguration, Donald Trump is already sabre-rattling. It is, he said, an “absolute necessity” that America annexes Greenland. “People really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to it, but if they do, they should give it up because we need it for national security.” Not even in the White House yet and the president-elect already has Europe in a frenzy, refusing to rule out economic or military coercion in his desire to secure control over the Danish autonomous territory.
Donald Trump Jr is also in on the act. He ostentatiously visited the island this week, purporting to be a tourist; but he was accompanied by Sergio Gor, the powerful incoming director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office, and was seen handing out “Make Greenland Great Again” hats. “Don Jr. and my reps landing in Greenland”, Trump posted on social media. “The reception has been great. They, and the Free World, need safety, security, strength, and PEACE! This is a deal that must happen. MAGA. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!”.
Not wanting to be left out, Elon Musk weighed in on X, writing, “If the people of Greenland want to be part of America, which I hope they do, they would be most welcome!”.
Unsurprisingly, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen gave Trump’s proposal short shrift, stating, “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders”. But all the love bombing comes amid a rising independence movement in the former Danish colony that became self-ruling in 1979. “It is now time to take the next step for our country,” Greenland’s premier Múte Egede said. “Like other countries in the world, we must work to remove the obstacles to cooperation — which we can describe as the shackles of the colonial era — and move on.” He also floated the idea of a possible referendum, a development that could potentially play into Trump’s expansionist aim.
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