Ole Jørgen Hammeken was at sea, far inside the Arctic Circle, when the Inuit elder found in the pocket of his sealskin coat an old, crumpled business card that had survived nearly a decade of blizzards and storms. It belonged to Donald Trump Jr.
The younger Trump had met Hammeken in 2016, hoping that the Greenland resident and seasoned polar explorer would take him hunting muskox with a bow and arrow in the island’s far north. But then his father ran for president of the United States and the trip failed.
Now, almost a decade later, the Trumps were back in Greenland.
Trump Jr landed in the capital Nuuk this week for a surprise five-hour visit, shortly after Donald Trump, set to become US president again, said he wanted to buy the island – part of the Kingdom of Denmark – and refused. to exclude the use of military force to do this.
This has plunged the vast ice-covered territory, whose 57,000 inhabitants live in some of the coldest and most remote regions of the world, into a geopolitical storm. EU leaders have struggled to respond to an apparent territorial threat from a NATO ally.
In Nuuk, where temperatures are below freezing much of the year and winter daylight hours are short, Trump’s comments were unsettling to many. Greenlanders, several Nuuk residents said, tend to avoid conflict in daily life and are shocked by Trump’s aggressive tone.
“For some, it was scary,” Hammeken said.
Many people were offended, said Kuupik Kleist, former prime minister of Greenland. They didn’t like their homeland being discussed like a real estate transaction.
“You don’t just buy a country or its people,” Kleist said.
But Hammeken believes there is an upside to Trump’s interest in the island.
Many Greenlanders are familiar with the president-elect’s style and know not to take him literally, Hammeken said. They are happy that it has brought the issue of Greenland’s future into the global spotlight.
“Now Denmark must listen,” Hammeken said.
Colonized by Denmark in the 18th century, Greenland has long campaigned for greater autonomy. Although it is now an autonomous Danish territory and has decision-making power on most matters except foreign and security policy, all Greenlanders who spoke with the FT in Nuuk said they wanted more political control.
“No one here wants to be part of the United States, but they want more influence over things,” said Bolette Nielsen, a mining consultant for the small group of towns and cities on Greenland’s east coast.
At a cafe near the old colonial port district of Nuuk, where the statue of a Danish-Norwegian missionary overlooks the fjord and is regularly doused with paint by protesters, Nielsen said Greenland’s biggest political divide lies between those who want more autonomy within Denmark, and those who believe that Greenland is capable of going it alone.
Regardless, “Trump started a lot of things,” Nielsen said. “Denmark will have to listen to Greenland a lot more. We have been asking for this for so long.
The Greenlanders gave many reasons for wanting to get rid of Danish rule. Some described personal experiences of discrimination, while others spoke of inequalities in pensions and wages between Greenlanders and Danes, or disparities in the provision of services such as higher education and health care.
But most importantly, people cited recent revelations that in the 1960s Danish doctors placed IUDs on thousands of Inuit women without their consent, an act that Greenland’s Prime Minister, Múte Egede, called ” genocide.”
On Friday — as a ticker tape in central Nuuk looped Trump’s comments — Egede told a news conference that the island did not want to be part of the United States or Denmark. He wanted independence.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen responded that this was “legitimate and understandable”.
Hammeken said the exchange showed that “the balance between Greenland and Denmark has shifted significantly in recent days,” thanks to Trump.
But many Greenlanders believe the island does not have a strong enough economy to simply cut ties with Copenhagen and go it alone. This question is expected to dominate the next elections, scheduled for the spring.
“When people talk about independence, I don’t really understand what that means,” said John Hansen, a musician from Nuuk. Although he feels deeply about his local identity – Hansen has compiled a book of Greenlandic poetry and songs – the artist said supporters of independence had no plan.
Greenland, the largest island in the world, remains financially dependent on Denmark, with 53% of its budget in 2024 made up of a direct subsidy from Copenhagen. “How this is going to be replaced is a mystery to me,” Kleist said.
“We currently only live from the sea and a little tourism,” he said. Fishing accounts for 90 percent of Greenland’s exports and the industry is the second largest employer after the state.
Nielsen said Greenland was “too small and too vulnerable” and needed to “strengthen other areas.”
One of these areas should be mining, Greenland’s business community said.
Although many international companies have licenses to dig and the island is rich in valuable rare earth minerals, few projects have come to fruition due to government regulations and the logistical challenges presented by the landscape.
Trump’s comments have sent share prices for some local mining projects soaring in recent days, with one industry person describing a feeling of a “gold rush” in the air.
In the snowy harbor of Nuuk, where small fishing boats and trawlers pick their way through chunks of floating ice to reach the sea, fishermen laughed at the idea of reaching the United States. But they said there was value in diversifying Greenland’s trade.
“In fishing, we are looking at selling to the United States, not just Denmark,” Pavia Rasmussen said as he ate a breakfast of raw seal meat at a clubhouse near the wharf . “We think this could mean a better price for fish. »
Greater trade freedom could also mean cheaper food imports from the United States, said Nils, another fisherman. “Danish food is very expensive.”
Climate change is making the work of Greenlandic fishermen much more difficult, the men said. They are already facing turbulent weather conditions and long winter nights. Melting ice caps are now affecting fish supplies, said Ulrich, manager of a trawler and fish processing plant.
These same climate changes open Arctic waters to more navigation and therefore to competition for natural resources. Greenland, Ulrich believes, is caught in the middle of Trump’s “great game” with Russia and China.
Trump has cited U.S. national security as the main reason he wants Greenland, which is home to a major U.S. military base.
Greenlanders hoping for independence said they recognized that the island was unable to provide for its own defense. But they believed that military support, as well as trade deals, could come from many quarters.
“Greenland is at the stage where it wants to have options,” the former government official said, adding that politicians are “wooing” many countries, including talking to the United Kingdom.
Trump Jr.’s visit to Nuuk this week lasted only a few hours, but had locals talking for days. Local media reported that some of the people seen wearing “Make America Great Again” hats at a meeting were lured by the promise of free food at an expensive restaurant.
But even the local trip coordinator – Jørgen Boassen, a Greenlandic mason and Maga fan who went door-to-door for Trump in the United States during the election campaign – told Norwegian media outlet VG that Trump’s comments on his desire to buy Greenland should be “taken with a certain amount of hindsight”. pinch of salt.”
This was the message he was sending.
“He came here to show Russia and China that Trump is here,” he said.
