Trump hedges in the Arctic
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- Nuuk residents expressed relief, and some skepticism, over Trump walking back threats to use military force to annex Greenland.
- Several locals said they are flying Greenland’s red-and-white flag for the first time.
NUUK, Greenland — The sun had barely crept above the ice sheet in Greenland, so far north in the middle of winter, when President Trump began his remarks midday. But Jinny Holm was not going to miss it.
She turns on the television every morning these days, keeping it on in the background, monitoring the developments of a foreign leader who otherwise would matter little in her life if not for his fixation on conquering her ancient homeland.
“My son, he has been a little bit worried about this military, so I have been talking to him — ‘Don’t worry. He cannot buy us,’” said Holm, a caregiver, describing her 9-year-old. “So that’s really good, that he said he will not use military force.”
Addressing an annual economic forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump walked back threats to use military force to annex the semiautonomous Danish territory — news that was received with overwhelming relief here. Yet few trust Trump enough to take him at his word on any given day.
“I don’t want to be American, because I am Inuit,” she continued. “I am born here. In my future, I have grandson, and he will be Greenlandic.”
Trump focused largely on the fate of Greenland in his Davos remarks. But he made no mention of the people here, whose lives have been consumed by confusion and concern over his designs.
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It has become such an overbearing topic around town that locals have grown weary of discussing it. Journalists are making their presence known in Greenland’s largest city, posting tripods at the few major intersections that make up Nuuk. On my way to the regional capital — which, by law and practice, means flying into the European Union — even a border agent in Reykjavik, Iceland, couldn’t help but comment on the news.
“You’re flying into that storm?” she asked.
Many locals let signage speak for themselves: “We Are Not For Sale” posters are common, alongside the occasional silhouette of Greenland, donning an orange toupee, crossed out in red. Several locals said they are flying Greenland’s red-and-white flag for the first time.
“He talks so much s—,” said Silas, a student from Nuuk, who dismissed the idea of joining the United States due to its healthcare system.
Finn Meinel, a lawyer born and raised in Nuuk, said there is “universal” disapproval of Trump’s territorial approach toward the island.
“Of course it’s nice to see that the wording has been softened, and that increases the odds of a nonviolent solution to this conflict,” Meinel said. But he took a moment before answering whether he viewed the United States as a force for good in the world.
“A lot of people are disappointed,” he said, “and for trust to be rebuilt with the Greenlandic people, that will take quite some time.”
Carl Egede Boggild, also born and raised in Greenland, said he had lost trust in Trump after he precipitated an unnecessary crisis.
“He’s threatening, he’s threatening and he’s threatening. He gets his way by threatening. But does he create trust? No,” said Egede Boggild, a former university professor working at the Ministry of Education. “There’s no such thing as a friendly annexation.”
Like so many others, he has closely followed the developments out of Washington. After conveying frustration with the U.S. government, he paused to apologize for being so direct.
“There are Americans, and there is Trump. They are two things,” Egede Boggild said. “I don’t distrust Americans. I distrust the Trump government. It’s only power — that’s all it is. The arguments they are making don’t hold.”
Those arguments are coming solely from the White House, where Trump himself, with no meaningful assistance from policy experts, has run the United States headlong into a diplomatic rupture with its closest allies, Defense and State Department sources tell The Times.
Trump’s remarks Wednesday, suddenly retreating from his threat of military force, could mitigate some of the damage inflicted on Washington’s most cherished relationships. But there is a risk his pivot has come too late. Major transatlantic partners, from France and the United Kingdom to Canada, expressed this week a rare sense of resignation, as if they have had enough with Trump’s foreign policy tactics, viewed across Europe as increasingly boorish and unrestrained.
The president’s moves may ultimately result in a new defense agreement over Greenland. But it may also be remembered as the moment where Europe broke away from the United States, exasperated by a world run solely by hard American power at the whims of an ever imperial presidency.
In Greenland, for its part, it may be remembered as a moment that rallied its small, remote population to its value and purpose.
“I think people are coming together, and are more socially aware — taking care of those who need to be supported, caring for one another,” Meinel said.
“People are more friendly,” he continued, “putting ourselves together as a group against an external foe.”
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Michael Wilner
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