By EMMA BURROWS
NUUK, Greenland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has turned the Arctic island of Greenland right into a geopolitical hotspot along with his calls for to personal it and options that the U.S. may take it by pressure.
The island is a semiautonomous area of Denmark, and Denmark’s international minister mentioned Wednesday after a gathering on the White Home {that a} “ fundamental disagreement ” stays with Trump over the island.
The disaster is dominating the lives of Greenlanders and “people are not sleeping, children are afraid, and it just fills everything these days. And we can’t really understand it,” Naaja Nathanielsen, a Greenlandic minister mentioned at a gathering with lawmakers in Britain’s Parliament this week.
Right here’s a have a look at what Greenlanders have been saying:
Trump “undermining” Greenlandic tradition
Trump has dismissed Denmark’s defenses in Greenland, suggesting it’s “two dog sleds.”
By saying that, Trump is “undermining us as a people,” Mari Laursen advised AP.
Laursen mentioned she used to work on a fishing trawler however is now finding out legislation. She approached AP to say she thought earlier examples of cooperation between Greenlanders and People are “often overlooked when Trump talks about dog sleds.”
She mentioned throughout World Conflict II, Greenlandic hunters on their canine sleds labored along with the U.S. army to detect Nazi German forces on the island.
FILE – A girl pushes a stroller along with her youngsters in Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Picture/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
“The Arctic climate and environment is so different from maybe what they (Americans) are used to with the warships and helicopters and tanks. A dog sled is more efficient. It can go where no warship and helicopter can go,” Laursen mentioned.
Greenlanders don’t imagine Trump’s claims
Trump has repeatedly claimed Russian and Chinese language ships are swarming the seas round Greenland. Loads of Greenlanders who spoke to AP dismissed that declare.
“I think he (Trump) should mind his own business,” mentioned Lars Vintner, a heating engineer.
“What’s he going to do with Greenland? He speaks of Russians and Chinese and everything in Greenlandic waters or in our country. We are only 57,000 people. The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market. And every summer we go sailing and we go hunting and I never saw Russian or Chinese ships here in Greenland,” he mentioned.
Down at Nuuk’s small harbor, Gerth Josefsen spoke to AP as he connected small fish as bait to his strains. He mentioned, “I don’t see them (the ships)” and mentioned he had solely seen “a Russian fishing boat ten years ago.”
Fisherman Gerth Josefsen prepares fishing strains on the harbour of Nuuk, Greenland, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Picture/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Trump is concerned with Greenland’s essential minerals
Maya Martinsen, 21, a store employee, advised AP she doesn’t imagine Trump desires Greenland to reinforce America’s safety.
“I know it’s not national security. I think it’s for the oils and minerals that we have that are untouched,” she mentioned, suggesting the People are treating her house like a “business trade.”
She mentioned she thought it was good that American, Greenlandic and Danish officers met within the White Home Wednesday and mentioned she believes that “the Danish and Greenlandic people are mostly on the same side,” regardless of some Greenlanders wanting independence.
Navy vessel HDMS Knud Rasmussen of the Royal Danish Navy patrols close to Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Picture/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Greenlanders get help from Denmark
Tuuta Mikaelsen, a 22-year-old scholar, advised AP that she hopes the U.S. obtained the message from Danish and Greenlandic officers to “back off.”
She mentioned she didn’t wish to be a part of the USA as a result of in Greenland “there are laws and stuff, and health insurance .. .we can go to the doctors and nurses … we don’t have to pay anything,” she mentioned including “I don’t want the U.S. to take that away from us.”
Greenland is on the middle of a media storm
In Greenland’s parliament, Juno Berthelsen, MP for the Naleraq opposition celebration that campaigns for independence within the Greenlandic parliament advised AP that he has performed a number of media interviews day-after-day for the final two weeks.
Juno Berthelsen, MP for the Naleraq opposition celebration that campaigns for independence within the Greenlandic parliament poses for photograph at his workplace in Nuuk, Greenland, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Picture/Evgeniy Maloletka)
When requested by AP what he would say to Trump and Vice President JD Vance if he had the prospect, Berthelsen mentioned:
“I would tell them, of course, that — as we’ve seen — a lot of Republicans as well as Democrats are not in favor of having such an aggressive rhetoric and talk about military intervention, invasion. So we would tell them to move beyond that and continue this diplomatic dialogue and making sure that the Greenlandic people are the ones who are at the very center of this conversation.”
“It is our country,” he mentioned. “Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people.”
Kwiyeon Ha and Evgeniy Maloletka contributed to this report.
