And What Does Greenland Want?
The Kalaallit people want self-rule
“We don't want to be Americans, we don't want to be Danes, we want to be Greenlanders,” Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a January 9, 2026 joint statement with former Prime Minister Múte B. Egede, and party leaders Pele Broberg, Aleqa Hammond, and Aqqalu C. Jerimiassen. “We must decide the future of our country ourselves, without pressure for quick decision, delay or interference from other countries.”
Here in the U.S., the MAGA apparatus is defunding public broadcasting, threatening criminal indictment against the Federal Reserve, terrorizing communities, and murdering its own people at home. It is simultaneously threatening our border with Mexico, strafing fishing boats in the Caribbean, usurping control of Venezuela, and glibly undermining our 70-year NATO alliance and our friendship with Denmark.
The MAGA interest in Greenland seemed to be reignited by Stephen Miller’s wife, a podcaster with no government position. Just hours after the unilateral American ousting of Venezuelan President Maduro and his wife, she tweeted a picture of Greenland covered by a superimposed American flag. Her glibly ominous caption was one word in all caps: “SOON.”
Greenland has been a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, our longtime political ally and fellow NATO member, since 1979.
“We should be the people that is in focus here,” lawmaker Juno Berthelsen emphasized, sharing that the Greenlandic people have consistently demonstrated that “we want independence.”
“I know Donald Trump is a businessman. But Greenland is not a product,” lawmaker Nivi Rosing said. “We are a people. And that should be taken very seriously and that should be respected.”
In March 2025, hundreds of Greenlanders demonstrated outside the U.S. consulate in Nuuk, waving Greenlandic flags, and denouncing becoming a part of the U.S. in any way.
The renewed discussions around “acquiring” Greenland by annexation, purchase, or military force “if necessary” prompted another wave of domestic despair, worldwide criticism, and swift responses from our NATO allies.
“What is at stake is bigger than what the eye can see, because if what we experience from the Americans is that they are actually turning their backs on the western alliance, that they are turning their backs on our Nato cooperation by threatening an ally, which we have not experienced before, then everything will stop,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen made clear.
Concluding a joint statement, the president, chancellor, and prime ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the U.K. and Denmark shared on January 6, 2026:
“Security in the Arctic must therefore be achieved collectively, in conjunction with NATO allies including the United States, by upholding the principles of the UN Charter, including sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders. These are universal principles, and we will not stop defending them.
The United States is an essential partner in this endeavour, as a NATO ally and through the defence agreement between the Kingdom of Denmark and the United States of 1951.
Greenland belongs to its people. It is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland.”
In a recent interview, Danish parliamentarian Rasmus Jarlov used problematic imperial terminology like Greenland “belongs” to Denmark and “well-established ownerships of territory” (emphasis mine.) But he deftly exposed the absurd pretense of the U.S. “needing” Greenland for security. He reminded viewers that the U.S. already has exclusive military access to Greenland and chose to downscale from 15,000 troops in the 1950s and 60s to our current 150 troops.
“They talk about that the United States are the only ones that can protect Greenland, but the fact is they are the only ones threatening Greenland,” Jarlov pointed out, adding that neither Russia nor China have threatened the island of 57,000 people.
“Diplomatic overtures will aim in part to address US security concerns, first by stressing that an existing US-Danish defence treaty from 1951, updated in 2004, already allows for massive expansion of the American military presence on the island, including new bases,” The Guardian reported.
Greenlandic and Danish foreign ministers Vivian Motzfeld and Lars Løkke Rasmussen are scheduled to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week.
The U.S. was founded on the decimation of Indigenous rights, land, and people. And it was built on the backs of Indigenous African people kidnapped and then enslaved here for generations. It is unlikely that powerful officials motivated by greed will honor the autonomy and self-determination of the Indigenous Kalaallit Inuit people or their land.
Here’s hoping that maybe that same greed will motivate them to at least respect our political allyship with Denmark and the economic powerhouse that is our overall NATO alliance. Anything less would be a grievous violation of the sovereignty of the Kalaallit people and an unconscionable betrayal of the post-WWII relationships that we’ve bolstered with Denmark and maintained since. Together.