Trump's Fixation With Greenland Has Ended Denmark's Love Affair With the U.S.

Trump's claim on Greenland, which makes up 98% of Denmark's territory, has become central to U.S.-Danish ties

- Yaroslav Trofimov

In his long career as a senior Danish politician, including as minister of defense during President Trump's first administration, Claus Hjort Frederiksen said he always valued the Scandinavian nation's tight bond with the U.S.

And, like many from Denmark, until recently politically one of the more pro-American countries in Europe, he said he is heartbroken today by how the U.S. has turned from best friend to rapacious foe.

Trump's claim on the Arctic island of Greenland, which accounts for 98% of the Danish kingdom's landmass, has become the most important feature of the bilateral relationship.

"My parents, who had their youth during World War II here, they loved the Americans who came to our rescue in 1945," Frederiksen said. "For me—a person who has been trusting the U.S. all these years since then—it's very hard to experience that it doesn't mean anything anymore that we had fought alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan, in Iraq and many other places, that suddenly we are nothing."

As for his own two sons, Frederiksen added, "They are very very angry with the U.S."

So are most Danes. According to a YouGov poll conducted in February, only 20% of Danish people hold a favorable opinion of the U.S., down from 48% in August last year. In a more recent poll, for the Berlingske newspaper, 41% of Danes described the U.S. as a threat to their nation.

"It's a very big change in a very short time. We have always talked about the U.S. as our closest ally," said Rasmus Jarlov, a Danish lawmaker from the conservative opposition and a former minister of business affairs.

That change has seeped into the attitudes of ordinary Danes. "It's no longer well-regarded to go on vacation to the United States, it's now something to be frowned upon," he said, adding that his own household has stopped buying Heinz ketchup.