“Greenland Should Decide Its Own Future” Is the Kind of Thing That Only Needs to Be Said in the Face of a Tyrant

Extraordinary circumstances, like the U.S. abducting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro over the weekend, kicking off international panic, confusion and an existential crisis that could see Cuba starving to death within the next few weeks, have a tendency to lead to extraordinarily odd quotes. The Donald Trump administration’s continuous flouting of international law and stepping over of red lines in the United Nations charter is the sort of thing that makes heads of state feel the need to reiterate stuff that would sound absurd when said in any other context, for the sheer sake of reminding the world that “hey, this is not okay.” So it is with today’s quotes from U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer to the BBC, wherein he reiterated that yes, Denmark and its territory Greenland do in fact have a right to continued existence. It’s the kind of thing that only needs to be stated out loud in the presence of a tyrannical dictator, because in any other circumstance, the only response to such a statement would be “well yeah, of course.”

“Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark must decide the future of Greenland, and only Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark,” said Starmer, who simultaneously waffled on whether he would support or condemn the U.S. action to abduct Maduro and throw the entirety of Latin America into crisis. He continued with this circuitously worded statement: “And Denmark is a close ally in Europe, is a NATO ally and it is very important that the future of Greenland is for the Kingdom of Denmark and for Greenland themselves and only for Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.”

Which is all to say: Britain may not know where it stands on Venezuela, but it’s telling Trump to keep his grubby little hands away from Greenland, after Trump this weekend revived his fascination with the semiautonomous Danish territory, saying that the United States “needs Greenland from the standpoint of national security.” On Air Force One, Trump continued to tell reporters that “Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese Ships all over the place. Denmark is not going to be able to do it.”

Trump’s reference to “Russian and Chinese ships” refers to the newly crowded Arctic Ocean, which, thanks to climate change, has become significantly more accessible in recent years to new shipping lanes that were previously unnavigable due to hazards and arctic ice. This has effectively led to a new boomtown approach to arctic exploitation by the likes of Russia, China and the U.S., with Trump often mentioning Greenland’s supposed vast deposits of useful minerals, gems and rare earth elements. The only problem: Numerous commercial attempts to access potentially valuable deposits have failed over the years, with costs ballooning stratospherically in each attempt thanks to harsh weather and landscape conditions causing equipment failures, environmental concerns and regulation, and opposition from Greenland’s residents, few of whom are interested in the threat of disturbed Uranium dust and radioactive materials in their backyards. As a result, it’s questionable how feasible it truly is to exploit the valuable minerals that Greenland may contain, even though climate change may make them more accessible than before.

Of course, that’s all besides the point of whether Greenland deserves to continue its existence, and is simply meant to help explain why Trump is so obsessed with the place. Unsurprisingly, Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen was not amused (understatement) by this latest development, and issued a rather scathing rebuke containing the following:

“We have been the USA’s close and loyal friend for generations. That is why the current and recent rhetoric from the US is completely unacceptable. When the US president says that ‘we need Greenland’ and links us to Venezuela and military intervention, it is not just wrong. It’s disrespectful. Alliances are built on trust. And trust requires respect. Threats, pressure and talk of annexation have no place between friends. That is not how you speak to a people who have shown responsibility, stability and loyalty time and again. Enough is enough. No more pressure. No more innuendo. No more fantasies of annexation.”

“Greenland is not for sale.”
With calm clarity, Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen responds to the renewed threats and insinuations coming from Donald Trump and his administration.

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— European Democrats (@europeandemocrats.bsky.social) Jan 4, 2026 at 3:07 PM

The same message likewise was trumpeted by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen: “I have to say this very directly to the United States. It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the United States needing to take over Greenland. The U.S. has no right to annex one of the three countries in the Danish Kingdom.” Even iconic pop musician Björk (who is from Iceland, itself a former Greenland territory) weighed in today, urging Greenland to declare its independence.

In short, Greenland is an entirely different situation than the likes of Venezuela, a country that was being ruled by an illegitimate leader who had ignored the results of free elections. Greenland is an ally, a territory of Denmark, and a NATO member as a result–for the U.S. to move to simply seize it would be tantamount to World War III, causing at the very least the U.S. departure from NATO, something that Russia and China would no doubt view as a triumph. Trump is offering up no legitimate reason for why the country “needs” Greenland, nor does any such reason exist to be cited. Even the “national defense” argument is absurd; the United States already maintains a missile defense military base in Greenland and has since 1941, and its military was already allowed to operate in the region. Nor do the people of Greenland (it has only 56,000 residents) appear to have the slightest interest in joining with the United States–after Trump’s initial allusions to the idea, the country banned foreign-funded political advertising, while polls of residents have found at at least 85% of Greenlanders oppose U.S. intervention in the territory.

To return to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s statement, though, even the language of what is nominally a rebuke of the U.S. and Trump is ultimately couched in the sort of sanewashing that people can’t help but seem to apply to Donald Trump, acting as if they’re replying to the statements of a rational, courteous individual rather than a ravenous bully. Starmer asserts that “Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark must decide the future of Greenland,” but guess what? That future does not need some kind of imminent “decision” from Greenlanders or Denmark: The people of Greenland already “decided their future” by electing their chosen democratic representatives, putting their trust in those people to carry out policy and governance. It is the United States and Donald Trump who are seeking to disrupt the autonomous future that Greenland has already chosen. The world, and Americans at home, cannot allow Trump’s imperialistic dreams to come to fruition.