President Donald Trump has seemingly moved on from his once intense focus on obtaining Greenland for the United States, but the Danish Prime Minister said she believes it’s only a matter of time before he once again comes calling for the island.
On Tuesday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said it’s too early for anyone to “breathe a sigh of relief.”
“Right now it seems far away. There is perhaps a feeling that we can breathe a sigh of relief,” she said during a session of the Danish parliament, according to Politico. “It is my belief that we cannot.”
Trump has previously said he was determined to obtain Greenland and once told Congress that U.S. control of the island was essential for “national security and international security.”
When reporters asked him in March if acquiring Greenland was important enough for him to consider military action, he said that “I never take military force off the table.”
The response from Greenland — which is a self-ruling Danish territory — to its potential acquisition by the U.S. has been overwhelmingly negative, and the Danish government condemned the Trump administration’s attempts to force the issue.
During her address to parliament on Tuesday, Frederiksen said that much of Greenland’s population still lives in uncertainty over what the Trump administration will do to try to take control of the island and its vast supply of unmined rare earth minerals.
“Imagine what it’s like to live in one of the small settlements along the coast … when the world’s strongest superpower has talked about you as something that can be bought, as something that can be owned, as something that must be had,” she said.
“No matter what happens, we support Greenland in determining its own future. And we will not be threatened or intimidated into doing something that is clearly wrong.”
Greenland’s leadership is in talks with the U.K. to formalize a mineral partnership and its Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt told Politico it wanted to explore trade partnerships with other “like-minded countries” in an attempt to fortify it against American bullying.
“Of course, we want to have cooperation with our critical minerals with our like-minded countries, and [the] EU is a good partner, we like them,” she said in May.
She also condemned the Trump administration for its aggressive push to take control of the island.
“We’re supposed to be friends. We are allies. Allies don’t do such things,” Motzfeldt said. “The situation is new to us, and new to the rest of the world, because you don’t do… that to your ally.”
At the height of Trump’s Greenland obsession, he tasked Vice President JD Vance with trying to make inroads in the Danish territory, but his efforts were largely unsuccessful.
“Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance said in March. “You have underinvested in the people of Greenland, and you have underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass filled with incredible people. That has to change.”
Vance and his wife, Usha, took a trip to Greenland in March in an attempt to speak directly to Greenlanders, but no one wanted to meet with them.
The Vances were originally scheduled to attend the Avannaata Qimusseruaq, one of the world’s largest dog-sledding races, and to meet with a travel company in Greenland, but both events were canceled. Instead, they visited an American Space Force base before heading back to the U.S.
Frederiksen condemned Vance’s visit at the time.
“I have to say that it is unacceptable pressure being placed on Greenland and Denmark in this situation. And it is pressure that we will resist,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcasters DR and TV2 at the time.
“You cannot make a private visit with official representatives from another country when the acting Greenlandic government has made it very clear that they do not want a visit at this time.”
