With Trump threatening to take Greenland, Denmark is struggling to stay calm in the crisis.

Copenhagen’s gloomy January weather matches the mood among Danish politicians and business leaders.

Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, who threatened Donald Trump to buy Greenland and punish Denmark with higher tariffs if it obstructs, said: “We take this situation very seriously.”

But, he added, the government had “no desire to escalate some war of words.”

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen dismissed Trump’s suggestion that the United States might use military force to seize Greenland. “I have no illusions that it will come to that,” she told Danish television.

And Danish Industry CEO Lars Sandhal Sorensen said “there is every reason to be calm…nobody has any interest in a trade war.”

But behind the scenes, hastily organized high-level meetings have been taking place in Copenhagen throughout the week, reflecting the shock of Trump’s speech.

Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede flew to meet the Prime Minister and King Frederik X on Wednesday.

On Thursday night, party leaders from across the political spectrum held a rare meeting with Matt Frederiksen about the crisis in the Danish parliament.

Faced with what many in Denmark called Trump’s “anger,” Frederiksen tried to strike a conciliatory tone, repeatedly calling America “Denmark’s closest ally.”

She added that it was “only natural” for the United States to occupy the Arctic and Greenland.

However, she said that any decisions on Greenland’s future should be made by its people alone: ​​”Greenland belongs to Greenlanders… and Greenlanders themselves decide their future.”

Her careful approach is twofold.

On the one hand, Fredrickson is desperate not to make the situation worse. She was previously burned in 2011. In 2019, he canceled a trip to Denmark after calling Trump’s proposal to buy Greenland “absurd”.

Eric Holstein, a veteran political journalist, told the BBC: “He was only in power for a year then, and then things went back to normal.” But maybe this is the new normal.

But Frederiksen’s comments speak to Denmark’s determination not to meddle in Greenland’s internal affairs – which has its own parliament and whose population is increasingly leaning towards independence.

“She should have been more transparent in rejecting the proposal,” said opposition MP Rasmus Jarlov.

Although he said Trump’s move “surprised everyone,” he told the BBC that “this is a record of disrespect for the next president of the United States’ most trusted allies and friends.”

The conservative MP believes that Frederiksen’s insistence that “only Greenlanders… can decide and determine Greenland’s future” has put too much pressure on the islanders. “It was smart and smart to stand behind Greenland and make it clear that you don’t want Denmark.”

The Greenland question is a tough one for Denmark, whose prime minister led a social experiment in the 1950s that saw recently apologized Inuit children removed from their families and re-educated as a “model Denmark”.

Last week, Greenland’s leader said the territory must free itself from “colonial imprisonment”.

In doing so, he created a growing sense of nationalism among Greenland’s younger generations, fueled by an interest in indigenous Inuit culture and history.

Most commentators expect a successful independence referendum in the near future. While seen as a victory for many, with 60% of Greenland’s economy dependent on Denmark, it could create new problems.

An independent Greenland “will have to make a choice,” said Carsten Hong. A Social Democrat MP fears his current option, “based on equality and democracy”, will not lead to a new Commonwealth-style deal.

Hong, whose parliament office is decorated with poetry and paintings depicting scenes from Inuit life, said Greenland must decide “how much to value freedom.” He could cut ties with Denmark and turn to America, Hong said, “but that doesn’t make sense if you value freedom.”

Opposition MP Jarlov argues that while there is no point in forcing Greenland to become part of Denmark, it is “still too close to becoming an independent country”.

The capital, Nuuk, is self-governing, but relies on Copenhagen for currency management, foreign relations and defense – as well as substantial subsidies.

“Greenland has more freedom today than Denmark has from the EU,” Jarlov added. “So I hope they think things through.”

The harshest rebuttal to Trump’s comments so far has come from outside Denmark, as Mette Frederiksen has the difficult task of responding strongly without offending Greenland or the US.

The principle of inviolability of borders “applies to every country … whether it is very small or very powerful,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barot said the European Union would not allow it. Other countries “attack its sovereign borders”.

His comments allayed deep concerns about how to handle the incoming Trump presidency in the EU. “This is not so serious for Greenland and Denmark – it is serious for the whole world and Europe as a whole,” said Carsten Hong.

Imagine the world we could face in a few weeks without international agreements. That will shake everything up, and Denmark will be a small part of it.

Denmark’s business sector is similarly under pressure after Trump said that if he refused to hand over Greenland to the US, Denmark would be “tariffed at a very high level”.

In the year According to a 2024 Danish industry study, Denmark’s gross domestic product will drop by three percentage points if the US imposes a 10% tariff on imports from the EU as part of a global trade war.

The withdrawal of Danish products from the European Union is impossible for the United States, and will certainly result in retaliatory measures from the European Union. But business industry experts are taking few chances, and in Denmark, as elsewhere on the continent, huge amounts of resources are being poured into planning the possible consequences of Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.

As the inauguration season approaches, Danes are preparing as much as possible to weather the storm. There is a cautious hope that the president-elect may soon turn his attention to the grievances of other EU partners and that the Greenland question may be shelved for the time being.

But the anxiety stemmed from Trump’s refusal to rule out military intervention to seize what remains of Greenland.

Karsten Hong said that Denmark will affect any decision the United States takes.

“All they need to do is send a small warship to sail along the coast of Greenland and send a polite letter to Denmark,” he said, half joking.

“Last sentence: Well, Denmark, what are you going to do about it?

This is the new reality with Trump.