London, United Kingdom – The Danish government has summoned the U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Mark Stroh for an urgent meeting following reports of an alleged American espionage operation in Greenland.
According to Danish broadcaster DR, at least three U.S. citizens are suspected of running efforts to persuade Greenlanders to oppose Danish rule.
Greenland, the world’s largest island, is situated between the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, with Iceland to its southeast and Canada to its southwest. Although it has been self-governing since 1979, it remains part of the Kingdom of Denmark as an autonomous dependent territory.
Control over the Danish territory has long been coveted by U.S. President Donald Trump, in both his first and second terms in office.
Trump first mooted the idea of attempting to buy Greenland from the Danes in 2019, during his first term. He suggested that ownership of the territory was financially “hurting Denmark very badly” by costing them “almost $700 million USD a year”. Trump stated that the U.S., conversely, would benefit from owning Greenland for “strategic” reasons.
Since his re-election in 2024, Trump has repeatedly expressed his intention to annex the territory. In January 2025 he refused to rule out using military force to seize Greenland from Denmark, and then in March he reiterated that the U.S. would “go as far as we have to go” to control Greenland.
Most recently, in May, Trump told NBC News: “We need Greenland very badly … we need that for international security’. He also explicitly told NBC that, with regards to military action over Greenland, “I don’t rule it out.”
The repeated mentions of military intervention have strained relations between Denmark and the U.S., who are traditional allies and NATO members. The two nations are obliged to protect the other in the case of armed attack, according to the stipulations of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
The governments of both Greenland and Denmark have consistently denounced the expansionist remarks of the American administration pertaining to Greenland.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, having previously labelled Trump’s initial comments about the U.S. potentially buying Greenland in 2019 as “absurd”, told TIME Magazine in February that “when it comes to sovereignty, it is very clear that Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. And we are of course a sovereign state.”
“I hope and expect that everybody respects our territorial integrity like anywhere else in the world,” she added.
Image Source: NEXTA via X
In March, Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nelson, shortly after being sworn into office, also rejected the idea of American annexation in no uncertain terms.
“President Trump says that the United States is getting Greenland. Let me be clear: the United States won’t get that. We do not belong to anyone else. We determine our own future”, he said.
However, in light of this most recent espionage-related development, it seems that Trump’s position on the territory remains unwavering.
According to DR, unidentified sources from Greenland, the United States and the Danish government confirm that at least three Americans with connections to the U.S. President have been carrying out these covert influence operations.
The individuals allegedly attempted to build relationships with local figures of influence, such as politicians and business figures, and created lists of Greenlanders critical and supportive of Trump.
Responding to the affair, a White House spokesperson told the BBC, on the condition of anonymity, that they would not confirm whether there was a U.S.-directed covert influence campaign in Greenland but did say that “we think the Danes need to calm down”.
Featured Image: Donald Trump’s private jet, dubbed Trump Force One, lands in Nuuk, Greenland in January 2025 with the president’s eldest son – Donald Trump Junior – on board.
Image Credit: Heute via IMAGO
License: Creative Commons Licenses
