Greenlanders 'don't want to be Americans', say political leaders amid Trump threats [View all]

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Five parties issue joint statement after US president warns he would acquire the island ‘the nice way or the more difficult way’

Greenlanders ‘don’t want to be Americans’, say political leaders amid Trump threats

— The Guardian (@theguardian.com) 2026-01-10T11:04:13Z

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/10/greenlanders-dont-want-to-be-americans-say-political-leaders-amid-trump-threats

[excerpt]Greenlanders “don’t want to be Americans” and must decide the future of the Arctic island themselves, politicians in the self-governing Danish territory have said, after Donald Trump warned the US would “do something whether they like it or not”.

The leaders of five political parties in the Greenlandic parliament issued a united statement on Friday night, soon after the US president reiterated his threats to acquire the mineral-rich island.

“We don’t want to be Americans, we don’t want to be Danish, we want to be Greenlanders,” said the group, which included the island’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen. “The future of Greenland must be decided by Greenlanders.”

Stressing the desire of the people of Greenland, a former Danish colony, to have self-determination, they said: “No other country can meddle in this. We must decide our country’s future ourselves – without pressure to make a hasty decision, without procrastination, and without interference from other countries.”.......

Greenlanders have repeatedly expressed their refusal to be part of the US, with 85% of the population rejecting the idea, according to a 2025 poll.

Polling also shows only 7% of Americans support the idea of a US military invasion of the territory, which the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, recently said would mean the end of “Nato and therefore post second world war security”.