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President Trump's threats to seize Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, have put the Danish capital of Copenhagen on edge. The government of Denmark, a longtime ally of the United States, has insisted Greenland is not for sale. Here's NPR's Rob Schmitz.
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: The first reaction in Danish political circles to Trump's musings about making Greenland part of the United States was like that of political circles in Washington, utter confusion.
ELISABET SVANE: I think, like most Danes, I was, like, shocked.
SCHMITZ: Elisabet Svane, a political analyst for one of Denmark's most important newspapers, says Danish officials suddenly became hyperaware of the minute details, like when Trump happened to mention his Greenland takeover plan.
SVANE: There was a big relief when he didn't mention Greenland in his inauguration speech.
SCHMITZ: But then Trump called Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen. And Svane says after the 45-minute conversation, Frederiksen looked rattled. It was clear Trump was serious about his plan. But why?
RASMUS JARLOV: And the guesses range from because he's uninformed to it's a way of negotiating to he's actually going to do it.
SCHMITZ: Rasmus Jarlov is the conservative party spokesperson on Greenland and chair of the defense committee in Denmark's Parliament.
JARLOV: There's nothing that the United States could want in Greenland that they couldn't get just by talking to us normally, without threats of annexation.
SCHMITZ: He says if Trump wants Greenland's vast mineral resources, he's welcome to mine them. If it's shipping lanes he wants, he says there's nothing standing in the way. And if taking Greenland is to help better secure the region against Russia and China, Jarlov wonders why the U.S. only has 150 troops at its military base on Greenland, down considerably from 15,000 troops, which it had in the early stages of the Cold War. If you want to send more troops to your base there, President Trump, says Jarlov, go ahead. He says none of the reasons the Trump administration is putting forth for taking Greenland make sense when Denmark has been peacefully managing the island for 600 years.
JARLOV: Denmark is big enough to have Greenland, to control it, to keep the Chinese and Russians out, but we're small enough that they don't feel threatened by us.
SCHMITZ: Whatever the reason President Trump wants Greenland, political insiders conclude he's ushering in a new age of American imperialism.
CHRISTINE NISSEN: So MAGA is now about really literally making America greater in terms of size.
SCHMITZ: Christine Nissen is an analyst at the Danish Think Tank Europa. She says Danes have always welcomed U.S. military presence in Europe to ensure defense against adversaries like Russia. But nobody ever thought the U.S. would become an adversary.
NISSEN: It has disrupted the Danish and the European world view in a way because for Denmark, appeasing the U.S. has been the No. 1 goal for Danish foreign policy, security policy, for the last couple of decades.
SCHMITZ: Nissen says Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's response to Trump - she's publicly said that this issue is one for Greenland to decide - is what she calls a timid response. But it underscores the thorny relationship between Greenland and Denmark.
NISSEN: There's an election coming up, and we are very likely to see sort of a new structure of the Danish-Greenlandic relationship in the future.
SCHMITZ: Nissen says most Danes don't think about Greenland too much. In the past two weeks, she's noticed Danish media personalities apologize for mispronouncing Greenlandic names because the press here barely covers the island.
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SCHMITZ: At a rally in front of Copenhagen City Hall to celebrate a championship for the Danish men's handball team, Daniel Gerlo (ph), who's waving a red-and-white Danish flag, says he's never been to Greenland. But if Trump wants to buy it, then it's not up to Denmark.
DANIEL GERLO: If the people from Greenland wants to sell, if that's what they want, then they should do it. I don't think the Danish people should decide. The people from Greenland, they should decide - is Denmark or American?
SCHMITZ: Greenland's election is scheduled for next month. In a recent poll, only 6% of the island's residents said they're in favor of becoming part of the U.S. And last week, Greenland's Parliament outlawed foreign donations to political parties, a sign that the people of Greenland would prefer to remain autonomous.
Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Copenhagen. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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