Maja Overgard runs a knife back and forth across a wet seal hide. It will be months of painstaking work before she can turn the hide into boots ready to withstand a Greenlandic blizzard. Like most Greenlanders, however, Overgard is now more preoccupied with the geopolitical storm looming over her vast Arctic homeland.
In Nuuk, the snow- and wind-swept capital of Greenland, residents fear that US President Donald Trump is determined to take over their island at any cost. Overgaard sighs and says she and her husband have begun discussing whether they should flee to Denmark in the event of an American takeover. “I don’t want to live in an American empire,” she says. Her neighbors, who are hard at work processing hides and intestines, don’t want it either. “Trump is serious,” said Martin Rasmussen, who processes seal skins like his neighbor. He has also started boycotting American products. “Trump will fight to the bitter end,” he adds.
The idea that the United States might try to take control of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark with a population of 57.000, mostly Inuit, was once dismissed as geopolitical nonsense. But Trump, who has repeatedly mentioned the possibility of buying Greenland and refused to rule out the use of military force as an option to acquire the territory, has not given up on the idea.
Trump insists that securing Greenland, home to a small but strategically important U.S. military base, is an urgent national security priority. He claims that Denmark, which has governed Greenland for more than 300 years, has failed to adequately defend it and has allowed its waters to be “infested” by Russian and Chinese ships and submarines — a claim that Nordic officials and Greenlanders themselves dismiss as nonsense.
At the dock in Nuuk, several fishing boats bobbed in the dark blue waters. “I’ve never seen a single Russian or Chinese,” said a bewildered Helte Johansen, a fisherman in overalls who has been sailing the Greenland coast for nearly 40 years. Snowflakes clung to his mustache as the crew prepared the boat for departure. “I don’t think Trump knows anything about Greenland,” he said.
Nearby, Josef Ijbert was taking a break from unloading freshly caught Greenland cod onto the dock. He spends his free time hunting seals and reindeer in the seas and mountains around Nuuk, but he wouldn't dare fight an army of invaders. "Our guns are not for humans," he laughed.
There has been a growing sense of crisis among Greenlandic and Danish officials since Trump raised the stakes.
In a sign of the seriousness of the crisis, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was forced to play down the possibility of an invasion before Congress last week, saying the US was instead prioritising buying the islands. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said a US attack would mean the end of NATO.
In Nuuk, concern about American intentions is turning to anger. “They treat us like we’re goods in a store,” said Greenlandic MP Per Bertelsen, a soft-spoken former rocker who founded the political party of current Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen. “I find it hard to see the difference between the way the Americans treat Greenland and Russia, where we see their interest in territorial expansion,” he said.
"We are not for sale. We don't want to be Americans, we want to be Greenlanders," added Bertelsen, a former Greenlandic foreign minister.
There has long been a consensus in Nuuk that Greenland should pursue eventual independence from Denmark, which supports the territory financially with a large annual grant. But there is disagreement over how quickly that should happen and whether it is wise to cooperate with Copenhagen to repel American threats.
Jepe Strandsbjerg, an Arctic expert at the University of Greenland, said that Greenland’s government, which is wary of independence, has so far been largely in agreement with Denmark. “We have seen much closer cooperation over the past year,” he said, pointing to largely successful coordination despite recent bickering. “There is no rift between Nuuk and Copenhagen,” he explained.
But not everyone in Nuuk shares the same view. Pele Broberg, leader of the main opposition party, is pushing for Greenland to speed up its efforts to break free from Denmark. He sees Denmark and the United States as one and the same. He says Denmark is using fears of an American takeover to discredit the idea of independence.
Many Greenlanders have deeply ambivalent and sometimes hostile feelings towards Copenhagen. The history of Danish rule in Greenland is full of abuses against the indigenous Inuit, including forced relocations and the fact that thousands of young women were forced to use contraceptive IUDs without their consent. Greenlanders often face discrimination in Denmark.
Broberg bristled when asked whether efforts to break with Denmark could mean replacing one master with another, comparing Danish control of the island to rape and insisting that it was more important to deal with the current crisis than to worry about the next one. “How could it get worse?” Broberg asked. “We are living in one nightmare, we cannot worry about the next one.”
Trump has repeatedly suggested that the US has much to offer Greenland economically, but that has not convinced many Greenlanders. Even Broberg would not consider securing independence with American support, although he is open to discussing arrangements similar to those the US has with three Pacific island nations, which give Washington unlimited military access in exchange for generous financial packages, but only after Greenland achieves independence.
In Nuuk, there is no sign of an American effort to win the hearts and minds of Greenlanders. The American consulate appears to have been closed for some time, its flag neatly stowed in the hallway. The Financial Times spent an hour knocking on neighbors’ doors and asking passersby if they had ever seen anyone inside or noticed a Trump appointee. No one had.
Jurgen Boasen, the only publicly known pro-Trump figure in Greenland, appears to be one of the few Greenlanders, other than officials, with whom US officials communicate. He told the FT that he is in regular contact with two active US ambassadors and Tom Dance, Trump’s official in charge of Arctic affairs. He also showed messages he exchanged with Nigel Farage and other influential European populists.
But Boasen, a former bricklayer turned MAGA darling, is such a polarizing figure in Greenland that he has moved, seemingly semi-permanently, to Denmark.
“I trust Trump,” he said over a few beers in Copenhagen late one night. He listed the supposed benefits of American annexation. “People could grow old in Florida,” he said.
Many Greenlanders are deeply suspicious of the US and its newfound desire to build an Arctic empire.
Sophie Amundsen, an old-school seamstress, methodically washed, dried, and blew into long spirals of seal gut. Once they were completely dry, she planned to cut them into small strips that would eventually be turned into traditional Inuit earrings.
The stories that America might try to take over Greenland were confusing and painful for her. “We’re just recovering from (Danish) colonization,” she said. “I’ve had a bad feeling since last year, when (Trump) said he wanted to take over us.”
Amundsen spent time in Inuit communities in Alaska and Canada. "They speak mostly English, especially in Alaska. They told me that their grandparents and parents were forbidden to speak their language. They were forbidden their language," she explained.
Amundsen received the seal intestines from a hunter in remote eastern Greenland. The hunters, as they tracked game along the rugged coast, began to notice signs that geopolitical tensions were affecting Greenland, she said, including shell casings from intensified military exercises.
Other Greenlanders also look to Alaska, where isolated Inupiat Inuit live in scattered, impoverished villages and struggle to preserve their language and traditions.
“We still have them and we are under Denmark, they are under the Americans and they don't have them,” Overgard said, working on a seal skin as snow beat against the windows of her workshop. “I don't want this to be forgotten, to disappear,” she concluded.
The text is taken from the "Financial Times"
Prepared by: SS
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