Greenlanders reject Trump’s push for U.S. control of Arctic island

Greenlanders pushed back hard against U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying the island’s future belongs to its own people — not Washington. The rejection came as residents gathered in Nuuk for a traditional kayaking championship, a scene that captured something of the cultural defiance underlying their political message.

Trump renews demand at NATO summit

Speaking in Ankara at a NATO summit, Trump once again called for U.S. control of Greenland, framing it as a matter of national security. It’s not the first time. He made similar overtures during his first term, and again in early 2025, but the demand hasn’t gotten any warmer a reception with repetition. Trump argued that the island’s Arctic position makes it strategically vital, pointing to shipping routes and mineral resources as reasons Washington can’t afford to leave Greenland in European hands.

But Greenlanders weren’t buying it.

Locals speak out at kayaking event

At the waterfront in Nuuk, where competitors paddled traditional qajaq vessels in front of several hundred spectators, residents were direct about where they stand. “Greenland is not for sale and it’s not for taking,” said one local official attending the event. “We decide what happens here. That’s how it has to be.” The sentiment was repeated by multiple attendees throughout the day, cutting across age groups.

Greenland has a population of roughly 56,000 people and has held semi-autonomous status under Denmark since 1979, with expanded self-rule granted in 2009. Independence is already a live political conversation on the island, but residents were clear that any such transition would be on their own terms — not driven by pressure from a foreign president.

A territory caught between competing interests

The island sits at a genuinely critical geographic crossroads. It shares the Arctic with Russia and Canada, and its northeastern coast is closer to Moscow than it is to Copenhagen. The U.S. already operates Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base, under a longstanding agreement with Denmark. Still, Trump’s framing of outright control strikes many observers — and virtually all Greenlanders — as a step far beyond any reasonable security arrangement.

Denmark has said repeatedly it won’t entertain a sale or transfer of sovereignty. The European Union expressed similar concerns earlier this year when Trump first revived the idea.

What comes next

Greenland’s own government, the Naalakkersuisut, is expected to issue a formal response to Trump’s latest remarks in the coming days. Prime Minister Mute Egede has previously stated that independence, if and when it comes, will be built on Greenlandic identity and self-determination — not negotiated over Greenlanders’ heads at a summit thousands of miles away.

Wednesday’s kayaking championship carried on without interruption. And in that, perhaps, was its own kind of statement.