Leave or stay? Greenlanders consider contingency plans after Trump threats
Escape plans, supplies, fear for the children: Trump's threats are making Greenland tremble. In Nuuk, people are suddenly thinking about war, hiding places and saying goodbye.
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- US President Donald Trump's repeated threats to take over Greenland by force if necessary are causing massive uncertainty among the population.
- Many inhabitants are thinking about fleeing, stockpiling and emergency plans for the first time, although there are no official instructions.
- While some are ready to leave, others want to stay and stand by their country despite their fears.
Ulrikke Andersen has already made a plan: if the US launches an invasion of Greenland, she wants to flee together with her daughter. "I used to be prepared to die for my country, but things have changed since I had a child," says the 40-year-old. Andersen is one of the many inhabitants of Greenland's capital Nuuk who are suddenly weighing up options for the future that would never have occurred to them just a few months ago.
US President Donald Trump's constant statements and threats to take Greenland, which is rich in raw materials and strategically located for military purposes, by force if necessary and incorporate it into the USA are leaving their mark on the huge island. Although the inhabitants of the autonomous territory, which belongs to Denmark, are not yet panicking, they are seriously considering what they should do in an emergency.
Stocking up freezers and buying generators
"I'm thinking about where I can hide and what medication I need to stockpile," says 35-year-old student Nuunu Binzer. The authorities have not yet issued official instructions on what to do in the event of an escalation of the situation or even an invasion. But many Greenlanders are already filling up their freezers, stocking up on drinking water and fuel or buying generators.
Ulrikke Andersen does not think war is out of the question. "I have a feeling it could happen," she says. "I'm constantly thinking about what we can do then. When I go out with the dog, I think about what it would look like in the streets here."
In her living room, decorated with Inuit art, the TV shows images of Trump and his Greenland threats on a continuous loop. The US president ignores the independence wishes of many Greenlanders as well as the objections of the protecting power Denmark and keeps repeating that the USA would take the Arctic island "one way or another".
"We are used to living in extreme conditions"
Andersen has two contingency plans ready for this eventuality: if the USA slowly and gradually takes power on Greenland, she wants to move with her family to Denmark, of which she is a citizen. In the event of a sudden military invasion, the family plans to flee by boat to a remote cabin at the other end of the island. "We can hunt, fish, live off the land. We are used to living in extreme conditions, it's in our DNA," the 40-year-old is convinced.
However, her 71-year-old mother and her father, who is eight years older, would have to stay behind in Nuuk in that case, something Andersen has already spoken to them about. "They understand, because I've told them that we need people who can survive and adapt to a life with the bare minimum," says Ulrikke Andersen. "It would be too hard for them and it would weaken the group."
62-year-old entrepreneur Inger Olsvig Brandt, on the other hand, wants to stay in the capital Nuuk at all costs. "I'm not leaving, I'll try to help my country as long as I have the strength," she says. "It's tempting to leave, but there are so few of us that we need each other."
