Ole Jørgen Hammeken was at sea well inside the Arctic Circle when the Inuit elder found a crumpled business card in the pocket of his sealskin coat, which had survived almost a decade of storms and storms. It belonged to Donald Trump Jr.
The younger Trump had met Hammeken in 2016, hoping the Greenland resident and veteran polar explorer would take him musk ox hunting with a bow and arrow in the extreme north of the island. But then his father ran for president of the US and the trip fell through.
Now, almost a decade later, the Trumps are back in Greenland.
Trump Jr landed in the capital Nuuk for a surprise five-hour visit this week, shortly after Donald Trump, determined to become US president again, said he wanted to buy the island – which is part of the kingdom of Denmark – and refused to rule out the use of military force to do so.
It has thrown the vast, ice-covered land, whose 57,000 people live in some of the coldest and most remote corners of the world, into a geopolitical storm. EU leaders have struggled to respond to an apparent territorial threat from a NATO ally.
In Nuuk, where temperatures are below freezing for most of the year and winter hours are short, Trump’s comments were troubling to many. Greenlanders, some Nuuk residents said, tended to avoid conflict in their daily lives and were shocked by Trump’s aggressive tone.
“For some, it was scary,” Hammeken said.
Many people were offended, said Kuupik Kleist, a former prime minister of Greenland. They did not enjoy their homeland being discussed as a real estate deal.
“You can’t just go in and buy a country, or its people,” Kleist said.
But Hammeken believes Trump’s interest in the island has an upside.
Many Greenlanders are familiar with the president-elect’s style and know not to take him literally, Hammeken said. They are happy that he has put the issue of Greenland’s future in the global spotlight.
“Now Denmark must listen,” Hammeken said.
Colonized by Denmark in the 18th century, Greenland has long lobbied for increased self-government. Although it is now an autonomous Danish territory and has decision-making power on most issues except foreign and security policy, all Greenlanders who spoke to the FT in Nuuk said they wanted more political control.
“Nobody here wants to be part of the US, but they want more influence over things,” said Bolette Nielsen, a mining consultant from the small cluster of towns and settlements on Greenland’s east coast.
At a cafe near Nuuk’s old Colonial Harbor neighborhood, where a statue of a Danish-Norwegian missionary towers over the fjord and is regularly painted over by protesters, Nielsen said Greenland’s biggest political fault runs between those who want more autonomy like part of Denmark. and those who think that Greenland is able to go completely alone.
Either way, “Trump has caused a lot,” Nielsen said. “Denmark will have to listen to Greenland a lot more. We’ve been crying about it for so long.”
The Greenlanders gave many reasons for wanting to give up Danish rule. Some described personal experiences of discrimination, while others talked about disparities in pensions and wages between Greenlanders and Danes, or disparities in the provision of services such as higher education and health care.
Above all, however, the people cited recent revelations that in the 1960s, Danish doctors inserted contraceptive coils into thousands of Inuit women without their consent, an act that Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede has described as a form of “genocide”.
On Friday – as an announcer in downtown Nuuk played Trump’s comments – Egede told a news conference that the island did not want to be part of the US or Denmark. He wanted independence.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen responded that this was “legitimate and understandable”.
Hammeken said the exchange showed that “the balance between Greenland and Denmark has changed tremendously just in the last few days,” thanks to Trump.
But many Greenlanders believe the island does not have a strong enough economy to cut ties with Copenhagen and go it alone. This issue is expected to dominate the upcoming elections, which will take place in the spring.
“When people talk about independence, I don’t quite understand what they mean,” said John Hansen, a musician in Nuuk. Despite feeling strongly about his local identity – Hansen has compiled a book of Greenlandic poems and songs – the artist said independence supporters did not have a plan.
Greenland, the world’s largest island, remains financially dependent on Denmark, with 53 percent of its budget in 2024 made up of a direct grant from Copenhagen. “How it will be replaced is a mystery to me,” Kleist said.
“We’re just living offshore now, and a little bit of tourism,” he said. Fishing accounts for 90 percent of Greenland’s exports and the industry is the second largest employer after the state.
Nielsen said Greenland was “too small and too vulnerable” and needed to “strengthen other areas”.
One of those areas should be mining, people in Greenland’s business community said.
Although many international companies have licenses to mine and the island is packed with valuable rare earth minerals, few projects have come to fruition due to government regulation and logistical challenges posed by the landscape.
Trump’s comments have boosted the share prices of several local mining projects in recent days, with one industry insider describing a sense of “gold rush” in the air.
In the snow-covered harbor of Nuuk, where small fishing boats and fishermen cut a path through the floating ice to get out to sea, the fishermen laughed at the idea of joining the US. But they said there was value in diversifying Greenland’s trade.
“In fishing, we think we want to sell to America, not just Denmark,” Pavia Rasmussen said as she ate a breakfast of raw seal meat at a dockside club. “We think it could mean a better price for the fish.”
More freedom to trade could also mean cheaper food imports from the US, said Nils, another fisherman. “Food from Denmark is very expensive.”
Climate change is making the work of Greenlandic fishermen much more difficult, the men said. They already sail through cloudy weather and long winter nights. Now the melting of the ice caps was affecting the fish supply, said Ulrich, head of a fishing and fish processing plant.
The same climate changes are opening Arctic waters to more navigation and thus competition over natural resources. Greenland, Ulrich thought, was caught in the middle of “Trump’s big game with Russia and China.”
Trump has cited US national security as the main reason he wants Greenland, which is home to a large US military base.
Greenlanders hoping for independence said they accepted the island was unable to provide for its own defence. But they thought that military support, as well as trade deals, could come from many directions.
“Greenland is at the stage where it wants to have options,” the former government official said, adding that politicians were “contacting” many countries, including talks with the United Kingdom.
Trump Jr.’s visit to Nuuk this week lasted just a few hours, but it kept residents talking for days. Local media reported that some of the people seen wearing “Make America Great Again” hats at a meeting were drawn there by the promise of free food at an expensive restaurant.
But even the trip’s local coordinator – Jørgen Boassen, a Greenlandic mason and Magas fan who door-knocked for Trump in the US during the election campaign – told Norwegian newspaper VG that Trump’s comments about wanting to buy Greenland should be “taken with a grain of salt.” salt”.
It was about the message he sent.
“He came here to show Russia and China that Trump is here,” he said.
Cartography by Steven Bernard
