What Greenlanders think about Donald Trump’s plan for their island to belong to the US

“Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders. So Trump can visit it, but nothing more.”

The waters are calm when we reach the isolated settlement of Kapisillit, of about 40 inhabitants, where a few hunters go out in search of seals.

The temperature is -16 ºC and, with the wind, the thermal sensation is -27 ºC.

But near the port I meet Kaaleeraq Ringsted, a 73-year-old great-grandfather, who is drying cod fillets caught in the abundant waters outside his house.

When I ask him whether President-elect Trump will buy or invade Greenland, he laughs at first. Then his tone turns serious.

“You can’t accept me saying this. Greenland is not for sale.”

He then tells me how he learned to fish and hunt here with his father and grandfather, and how he wants to preserve this life for his children and grandchildren.

Crossing the bay, the ship enters the broken ice on the surface. Two eagles perch on a rock in search of fish in the crystal clear waters.

We head to Angutimmarik Hansen’s farm, which raises sheep and hunts seals, wild birds and rabbits.

All winter feed for the sheep has to be imported from Denmark, a reminder of how the harsh climate determines living conditions here.

At the door of his house there is a rack with hunting rifles. He notices me looking at them.

“They’re in case there’s an invasion,” he jokes.

But his attitude toward the bellicose rhetoric coming from Mar-A-Lago is far from calm.

“What a stupid man Trump is,” he says. “We will never sell Greenland.”

This small farm is about 4,828 km from Florida, where the incoming US president gave his now famous press conference last week.

“But Trump is not the United States. We can understand each other with the people of the United States,” says Hansen.

The Trump effect was triggered with the arrival in Greenland of Donald Trump Jr, who joined his father’s statements. He arrived in the capital, Nuuk, on the family’s 757 plane, Trump Force One, and stayed there for four hours and thirty-three minutes.

“It’s been an incredible pleasure to meet people, and people were very happy to meet us,” he said, after having lunch at a local hotel. “Dad will have to come here.”

He then returned to the sunnier climes of Florida.

Trump Jr was received by local businessman Jorgen Boassen, who once campaigned for the president-elect.

Boassen told local media that he was Trump’s “biggest fan” and that “of course they are interested in our country, and they can come and see what our country is like. It’s also about opening up to trade and cooperation.”

The city of Nuuk is the northernmost capital in the world. It has a thriving civil society and a powerful press. And there is some satisfaction that Trump’s comments have propelled the debate over Greenland’s independence onto the international stage.

There must be a Greenland that is no one’s colony, say activists like Kuno Fencker, deputy of the ruling coalition and member of the Foreign Affairs and Security Commission of the local parliament.

We meet at the port, under the bronze statue of Hans Egede, the 18th-century missionary considered here as the man who paved the way to colonization.

“Donald Trump is a politician,” Fencker says.

“He’s a tough businessman and we know his rhetoric, and that rhetoric is something we’ve become accustomed to since 2019, and it’s just about talking to an equal, an ally, about how we can resolve things here in the Arctic and also in NATO”.

Fencker offers the central argument of the independentists.

“What is needed here is for Greenland, as a sovereign state, to negotiate directly with the United States and not for Denmark to do it for us.”

Denmark’s independence could have a significant financial cost.

Greenland receives subsidies from Copenhagen worth about a fifth of its GDP each year. Fencker suggests, like other prominent figures, that the island negotiate with the United States and Denmark for help.

“We are not naive. We need support in defense, security and also economic development. We want a sustainable and self-sufficient economy.”

The editor of local newspaper Sermitsiaq, Maasana Egede, admits he was concerned by Donald Trump’s implicit threat of force, but wants to see if reality matches the rhetoric.

Regarding independence, Egede is frustrated by what he sees as a polarized debate in the local and international media.

“We are telling this story that there has to be independence or not independence. But there is a whole intermediate story, and that is that people want independence, but not at any price. There is a standard of living that must be maintained. There is trade that must be maintained. There are ways of life that must be maintained”.

There is an expectation that at some point – not in the immediate future – there will be a vote in favor and Denmark will accept the result.

The island’s Prime Minister, Mute Egede, held a joint press conference with the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, following Donald Trump’s latest comments.

“We don’t want to be Danes, we don’t want to be Americans, we want to be Greenlanders,” he said. The Danish prime minister was careful not to offend anyone, least of all the incoming president of the United States.

“The debate on Greenland’s independence and the latest US announcements show us the great interest that Greenland arouses,” he declared.

“Events that set in motion many reflections and feelings in Greenland and Denmark,” he added.

Frederiksen knows very well that this feeling comes from afar in Greenland. The memory of injustice and racism remains fresh among the indigenous Inuit population.

Scandals such as the campaign to insert intrauterine devices (IUDs) to prevent pregnancies in thousands of Inuit women and girls in the 1960s and 1970s cast a shadow over the relationship between Greenland and Denmark.

It is not known how many of these procedures were carried out without the permission of those involved, but the numbers are considerable. The goal was to reduce the Greenlandic population.

Maliina Abelsen is a former Minister of Finance in the Government of Greenland, and now advises companies and organizations working on the island. He has also worked for UNICEF Denmark and for important Greenlandic companies, such as the Royal Greenland seafood group.

Abelsen believes that much more needs to be done to correct the injustices of the past.

“I think a lot of people are saying, maybe also the Danish government and state: ‘Oh, well, you know this happened in the past. It was many years ago. How are we going to be responsible for it? It’s time to move on.’ ‘”.

“But you can’t move on if you haven’t gotten over it and acknowledged what happened to you. That’s a job we have to do together with Denmark, not something Greenland can do on its own.”

Despite her high profile in civil society and business circles, Maliina Abelsen says that when it comes to racism – for example, jokes about the Inuit – she can speak for the majority of Greenlanders “since we’ve all done it.” experienced in our lives.

The issues of self-determination and coming to terms with the past are closely intertwined.

Now, Donald Trump’s intervention has put both before the eyes of the world.

But the message we hear – from the remote fjord settlements to the capital, Nuuk – is that the fate of Greenland must be decided here, among people whose voices have been ignored for too long.

With additional reporting by Adrienne Murray and Kostas Kallergis.

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