Greenland deal Almost half of Danes see the USA as a major threat

Gabriela Beck

31.1.2025

After Donald Trump announced several times that he wanted to buy Greenland, almost half of Danes see the USA as a major threat to their country. They find the USA more dangerous than North Korea or Iran.

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  • 46 percent of Danes now consider the USA to be a significant threat to their country.
  • The reason for the change in attitude: US President Donald Trump has announced several times that he wants to buy Greenland.
  • Greenland has large resources of oil and gas and raw materials in demand for environmentally friendly technologies.
  • Trump claims that the USA needs control of Greenland for "economic security".

Almost half of Danes now see the US as a significant threat to their country and the overwhelming majority oppose Greenland leaving to become part of the US, according to new polls, writes theGuardian.

The YouGov poll follows weeks of tension between Denmark, Greenland and the US over Donald Trump's repeated claims that he plans to take control of the largely autonomous territory, which is part of the Danish kingdom. Trump's interest in Greenland comes at a time of growing momentum for his already existing independence movement.

The survey of just over 1,000 people in Denmark, conducted between January 15 and 22, found that 46 percent considered the US to be either "a very big threat" or "a fairly big threat" to Denmark. This is more people than the 44 and 40 percent who stated in the survey that they considered North Korea or Iran to be a threat.

85 percent of Greenlanders want to remain autonomous

Of those surveyed, 78 percent said they would oppose a sale of Greenland to the US, but 72 percent also felt that the final decision should rest with Greenland and not Denmark.

An opinion poll published earlier this week found that 85 percent of Greenlanders did not want the island to become part of the US. The poll, commissioned by the Danish newspaper Berlingske and conducted by the opinion research institute Verian, further revealed that only 6 percent of Greenlanders were in favor of becoming part of the US, while 9 percent were undecided.

The results of the poll were published in a week in which Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen traveled to Berlin, Paris and Brussels to drum up support against Trump's Greenland bid after what senior European officials described as a "horrendous" phone call with the US president.

Greenland's resources arouse covetousness

Trump claims that the US needs control of Greenland - and the Panama Canal - for "economic security" and described ownership and control of the territory as an "absolute necessity".

However, Greenland has long been in the US President's sights as a purchase target. Back in 2019, Trump confirmed reports that he had asked his advisors to explore how the USA could purchase the largely autonomous territory. He described the deal as "essentially a big real estate deal". Greenland's oil and gas resources are attracting interest from around the world, as are its sought-after raw materials for environmentally friendly technologies.

Dream of having your own state: sled dogs at Qeqertarsuaq in Greenland.
Dream of having your own state: sled dogs at Qeqertarsuaq in Greenland.
Keystone

Greenland, with its population of around 56,000, is strategically important not only for the USA due to its location in the Arctic, its proximity to Russia, the mineral resources thought to be located there and an important US military base. In addition, increasing climate change will make shipping routes more accessible, at least in summer.

Within NATO, there are plans to propose to Trump a significant expansion of the allied military presence in the Arctic. According to a media report, it is hoped that this will defuse the discussion about Greenland's membership of Denmark. The background to this is that Trump has recently justified his interest in the world's largest island with American security interests.