Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said the island chooses Denmark and the EU over the US

US President Donald Trump has dismissed Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen as someone he doesn’t even know, threatening him with a “big problem” after Nielsen reaffirmed the island’s commitment to Denmark over the US.

The confrontation over Trump’s ambitions to acquire the strategic Arctic island reached a new peak at a joint press conference in Copenhagen on Tuesday, where Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Nielsen presented a united front.

“If we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU,” Nielsen said.

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The comments, made on the eve of high-level talks in Washington between Danish and Greenlandic officials and US Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, drew a sharp retort from Trump.

“That’s their problem,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews. “I disagree with them. I don’t know who he is, I don’t know anything about him, but that’s going to be a big problem for him.”

Trump has argued that the US must control Greenland to prevent Chinese or Russian dominance – an allegation disputed not only by Moscow and Beijing, but also by regional officials. “One way or the other, we’re gonna have Greenland,” he reiterated on Sunday.

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The threat comes amid a legislative move by Florida Congressman Randy Fine, who introduced the Greenland Annexation and Statehood Act – which would authorize the president to take “whatever steps necessary” to acquire the territory. Danish officials have rejected the premise, with Ambassador Jesper Moller Sorensen saying he made it “abundantly clear” to Fine that Greenland is part of Denmark.

While Copenhagen has expressed willingness to deepen security cooperation with the US within the NATO framework, it insists that the island’s future lies with its people, who voted in 2008 to retain self-governing status within Denmark. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte declined to comment directly on the dispute, saying his role is to ensure security in the Arctic.