US President Donald Trump already spoke in 2019 about wanting to buy Greenland from Denmark. This was then met with a negative response and labeled as “absurd”. In 2024, still during the presidential campaign, interest in Greenland intensified and he started talking about the fact that the USA needs the largest island in the world to defend the country.
He then also falsely talked about the fact that the island is teeming with Chinese and Russian ships in order to create the impression that Denmark is not able to protect the island.
Trump did not rule out that the US could take over Greenland militarily. The Danes took this threat seriously and responded to it in January by sending more soldiers to the island. According to sources, they were equipped with live ammunition and explosives with which they would detonate the landing runways so that the Americans could not land. In addition, Copenhagen also sent blood supplies to the island for wounded soldiers.
The situation was worsened by the kidnapping of Maduro
Everything took a turn on January 3, when Trump ordered the kidnapping of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. “When Trump keeps saying he wants to take over Greenland, and then what happened in Venezuela, we had to take all scenarios seriously,” a high-ranking source from the Danish security forces told the Danish station.
Another factor in the threat assessment was that “the United States is no longer functioning as it normally does,” by which he meant the unpredictability of Donald Trump. “Trump doesn’t have as many people around him as before to talk him out of it. This is very dangerous,” said the source.
Because of the American threats, Denmark turned to its allies, with whom it had been coordinating the situation since January 2025. “Shortly after the election of Donald Trump as US president, Denmark sought political support to oppose the now-increasing US demands to take over Greenland,” the station wrote.
At that time, Copenhagen requested the support of Paris and Berlin, as well as the Nordic states. “At that time, the goal was to create a European political alliance to defend the Scandinavian community,” she added.
