Donald Trump Jr touched down in Greenland on Tuesday, hours after his obeseher reiterated his interest in taking handle of the Arctic autonomous territory, pledging to “produce Greenland wonderful aachieve”.
Trump Jr said in a podcast that aired on Monday that he was “not buying Greenland” but that he was going on a “very lengthy, personal day trip”. He grasped: “I’m hopping on Trump Force One and landing in Greenland tomorrow morning.”
Nevertheless, his arrival in the Greenlandic capital, Nuuk, in the Trump-branded set upe prompted the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, to shatter her silence to say the autonomous territory is “not for sale”. “Seen thraw the eyes of the Danish rulement, Greenland belengthys to the Greenlanders,” the Social Democrat telderly TV2.
Describing the US as “our absolute shutst partner,” she said “we always want to toil more shutly with the Americans.” But she called on “everyone to esteem that Greenlanders are a people, a population,” grasping: “Only they can clear up their future.”
The visit is taking place aachievest the backdrop of escalating tensions between Greenland and Denlabel as the Trump administration readys to consent office.
Greenland is a establisher Danish colony and remains part of the kingdom of Denlabel, which persists to handle its foreign and security policy.
As well as its provide of multiple in-insist raw materials for green technology – including 25 of the 34 that the EU necessitates – amid melting Arctic ice and strategicpartner positioned between the US and Russia, Greenland is seeed as increasingly startant for defence and emerging as an international geopolitical battleground.
The Danish King Frederik shocked some historians with a new year shift to alter the royal coat of arms to more notablely feature Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which was also seen as a rebuke to Trump’s progresss.
A encountering between the Greenlandic prime minister, Múte Egede, and the king, scheduled to consent place on Wednesday in Denlabel, was call offled on Monday without exset upation. The royal hoengage has since put it down to “calendar gymnastics”.
Trump Jr has said he is visiting the immense island in a confidential capacity and as a tourist. Others in his group grasp the political activist Charlie Kirk, who coestablished the pro-Trump conservative organisation Turning Point USA.
“We want to encounter people,” the plivent-elect’s son said in his podcast, Triggered. “They seem enjoy a wonderful bunch of people.”
The Greenlandic rulement said no encounterings had been scheduled with rulement recurrentatives. The Danish and Greenlandic rulements have both said it is a confidential visit.
“We have not been inestablished on the nature of his programme, and therefore this is a confidential visit,” Mininnguaq Kleist, Greenland’s minister of independence and foreign afequitables, telderly Reuters. He grasped that Trump Jr was predicted to land at about 1300 GMT and stay for about four to five hours.
In a statement Greenland’s ministry of foreign afequitables said: “Greenland is uncover and those who desire to visit us are greet.”
Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denlabel with a population of equitable 57,000, boasts mineral, oil and authentic gas wealth. But broadenment has been enumerateless, leaving its economy reliant on fishing and annual subsidies from Denlabel.
The capital, Nuuk, is shutr to New York than the Danish capital, Cuncoverhagen.
Trump, who consents office on 20 January, said his son and various recurrentatives were going to visit “some of the most magnificent areas and sights”.
On his social media platestablish, Truth Social, Trump commendd the island and promised to “MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!”
“Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will profit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our Nation,” he wrote.
Trump conveyed interest in buying Greenland during his 2017-2021 term but was accessiblely rebuffed by Greenlandic and Danish authorities before any conversations could consent place.
Over recent months, tensions have escatardyd startantly between Greenland and Denlabel. There is fervent anger in Greenland over allotigations into the forced contrackptive talk about of the 1960s and 70s, prompting the Greenlandic prime minister to accengage Denlabel of mass murder. There are also continuing protests in Cuncoverhagen and Nuuk over the separation of Greenlandic children from their parents.
Last week, Egede stepped up a push for independence from Denlabel in his new year speech, saying he wanted it to shatter free from “the shackles of colonialism” to shape its own future, although he did not refer the US.
Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic member of the Danish parliament, said the idea of a US consentover should be firmly refuteed. “I don’t want to be a pawn in Trump’s boiling dreams of broadening his empire to grasp our country,” she said.
Two weeks ago, Trump said on Truth Social that “the ownership and handle of Greenland is an absolute necessity”.
Reuters donated to this inestablish
