‘We don’t want to be American’: Nearly nine in 10 Greenlanders oppose Trump’s plan to US take over island

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - A 3D-printed miniature model of U.S. President Donald Trump and the Greenlandic flag are seen in this illustration taken January 27, 2025. — Reuters pic

COPENHAGEN, Jan 30 — The vast majority of Greenland residents do not want their island to become part of the United States as envisaged by President Donald Trump, according to a poll published yesterday.

Trump has signalled that he wants the Arctic island — which is believed to hold large untapped mineral and oil reserves — to become part of the United States.

The mercurial Republican, who returned to the White House in late January, argues his country needs the autonomous Danish territory for “international security” and has not ruled out the use of force or tariffs to annex it.

But when asked if they wanted to become part of the United States, 85 percent of Greenlanders said no, according to the poll published in the Danish Berlingske and Greenland’s Sermitsiaq dailies.

Six percent of those polled said they were in favour and nine percent were undecided, according to the poll conducted by the Verian agency.

“It’s the first poll that asked a representative section of Greenland’s population and I think this is very important,” Kasper Moller Hansen, a political science professor at the University of Copenhagen, told AFP.

“I think this poll shows very clearly that they do not want to be American,” he said.

‘Get Greenland’

Trump has talked for years about a possible deal to take control of the Danish autonomous territory.

On Saturday, he told reporters he believed that the United States would “get Greenland”, which is located between the United States and Europe in a region of increasing strategic value as the melting of Arctic sea ice opens up new shipping routes.

Around 45 percent of Greenlanders view Trump’s interest in their island as a “threat”, while 43 percent view it as an “opportunity” and 13 percent are undecided, according to the poll.

A view of Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, October 4, 2023. — AFP pic

Trump’s fiery rhetoric meanwhile has set alarm bells ringing in Denmark, with officials in Greenland having long pushed for independence.

On Tuesday Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen visited Paris and Berlin to canvass backing from the European Union’s traditional powerhouses against Trump’s threats.

In mid-January, Frederiksen reportedly spoke to Trump by telephone, stressing that it was up to Greenland to determine its future.

According to European sources cited by the Financial Times, Danish officials described the conversation as “horrendous”, and that Trump’s interest in Greenland was “serious, and potentially very dangerous”.

Independence

Officials in Greenland have said they are open to doing business with the United States, including on its vast unexploited mining and oil drilling reserves.

But that has not necessarily translated into popular support for becoming a US territory, as the poll shows.

A day after Trump was sworn in as president, Greenland’s Prime Minister Mute Egede insisted that Greenlanders “don’t want to be American”.

Indeed the question of the island’s push for independence — from Copenhagen as much as Washington — will be at the heart of the campaign for the upcoming local elections, slated for April 6 at the latest.

“We don’t want to be Danes. We would like to have good relations with the Danes. But we want to find a different way that allows us to be Greenlanders,” Aaja Chemnitz, one of the two lawmakers representing the island in the Danish parliament, told AFP.

But she said that remains a distant possibility until the island, heavily dependent on Danish subsidies, develops its economy further.

Wednesday’s poll questioned 497 respondents 18 years or older between January 22 and 26 and had a margin of error of 1.9 to 4.4 percentage points.

Greenland has 57,000 residents. — AFP