Copenhagen, Denmark. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Monday that an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of the NATO military alliance, responding to renewed calls by US President Donald Trump for the strategic, mineral-rich Arctic island to come under US control.

Her remarks followed a weekend US military operation in Venezuela that saw American forces capture leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife in Caracas early Saturday, stunning the international community and heightening concerns in Denmark and Greenland. Greenland is a semiautonomous territory of the Danish kingdom and part of NATO.

Frederiksen and Greenland’s prime minister, Jens Frederik Nielsen, blasted Trump’s comments and warned of catastrophic consequences. Numerous European leaders expressed solidarity with them.

“If the United States chooses to attack another NATO country militarily, then everything stops,” Frederiksen told Danish broadcaster TV2 on Monday. “That includes our NATO cooperation and the security that has been provided since the end of the Second World War.”

20-Day Timeline Deepens Fears
Trump repeatedly called during his presidential transition and the early months of his second term for US jurisdiction over Greenland and has not ruled out using military force to take control of the island. His comments Sunday — including telling reporters, “Let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days” — further deepened fears that the US could be planning an intervention in the near future.

Frederiksen said Trump “should be taken seriously” when he says he wants Greenland.

“We will not accept a situation where we and Greenland are threatened in this way,” she said.

Nielsen, speaking at a news conference Monday, said Greenland cannot be compared to Venezuela and urged residents to remain calm and united.

“We are not in a situation where we think there might be a takeover of the country overnight, and that is why we are insisting that we want good cooperation,” he said.

“The situation is not such that the United States can simply conquer Greenland,” Nielsen added.

Ask Rostrup, a political journalist with TV2, wrote on the broadcaster’s live blog that Frederiksen previously would have flatly rejected the idea of an American takeover. But, he wrote, the rhetoric has escalated so much that she now has to acknowledge the possibility.

Trump Slams Denmark’s Security Efforts in Greenland

Trump on Sunday also mocked Denmark’s efforts to bolster Greenland’s security posture, saying the Danes had added “one more dog sled” to the Arctic territory’s defenses.

“It’s so strategic right now,” Trump told reporters as he flew back to Washington from his home in Florida. “Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.”

“We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he added.

Ulrik Pram Gad, a global security expert at the Danish Institute for International Studies, wrote in a report last year that while Russian and Chinese vessels do operate in the Arctic, they are “too far away to see from Greenland with or without binoculars.”

US Space Base in Northwestern Greenland
Greenlanders and Danes were further angered this weekend by a social media post from a former Trump administration official turned podcaster, Katie Miller, following the Venezuela raid. The post showed an illustrated map of Greenland in the colors of the US flag with the caption: “SOON.”

“Yes, we expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark,” Denmark’s ambassador to Washington, Jesper Møller Sørensen, wrote in response. Miller is married to Trump’s influential deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller.

The US Department of Defense operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland. Built under a 1951 defense agreement between Denmark and the United States, the base supports missile warning, missile defense, and space surveillance operations for the US and NATO.

On Denmark’s mainland, military cooperation with the United States has been long-standing. Denmark buys American-made F-35 fighter jets and last year its parliament approved legislation allowing U.S. military bases on Danish soil.

Critics say the vote ceded Danish sovereignty to Washington. The legislation expanded a 2023 agreement with the Biden administration that granted US forces broad access to Danish air bases.