Trump’s threat casts an ominous shadow over icy Greenland.

The sun is rising over the snow-capped mountains of Nuuk Fjord and we are walking through one of the world’s last wild frontiers.

But here and in the rest of Greenland’s frozen regions, shadows are gathering.

When Donald Trump is going to be the President of the United States, Mr Refusal to take Greenland by force It is echoing in conversations around the island.

“You’re definitely welcome to visit,” says the skipper of the converted fishing boat that takes us east. He asked not to be named because he realizes he has to do business with people of all political colors, but he used a phrase I hear here over and over again.

“Greenland belongs to Greenlanders. So Trump might visit, but that’s it.”

The water is calm as we pull into the secluded Kapsilt encampment to shoot seals – a population of about 40 – a few hunters.

It is -16C (3F), and -27C due to the wind chill effect.

But near the port I found a local church elder, 73-year-old Kalerak Ringsted, a great-grandmother, drying a cod dose near the entrance in the fish-rich waters.

When I ask President-elect Trump about buying or invading Greenland, he initially scoffs. Then the sound becomes serious.

“It is unacceptable to say that Greenland will not sell.”

Then he tells me how he learned to fish and hunt here with his father and grandfather and how he wants to keep this life for his children and grandchildren.

Crossing the bay, the boat plunged into the nose of the broken iceberg. Two vultures sitting on a rock and scanning the fish in the fresh water.

We were heading to the Angutimarik Hansen Farm, which keeps sheep and also hunts seals, wildfowl and rabbits.

All winter feed for the sheep has to be imported from Denmark, a reminder of how the harsh climate defines the possibility of living here.

Inside the front door is a rack of hunting rifles. He notices me looking at them.

“They’re the ones if there’s an invasion,” he jokes.

But his attitude to the bellicose speech from Mar-a-Lago is not relaxed.

“What kind of stupid person in the world is Trump,” he says. “We will never sell Greenland.”

This small farm is about 3,000 miles (4,828 km) from Florida, where the incoming US president gave his now-famous press conference last week.

But Trump is not America. We can work with the American people, says Mr. Hanson.

Trump’s influence from Donald Trump Jr.’s arrival in GreenlandHot on the heels of his father’s words. He flew on his family’s 737 jet – Trump Force One – to the capital, Nuuk, and stayed for four hours and thirty-three minutes, meeting some locals and making only polite comments.

“It was amazing to meet people, and people were really happy to meet us,” he said, after lunch at a local hotel. “Dad, they have to come here.”

Then it was back to the sunny climate of Florida.

Trump Jr. was welcomed by George Boasson, a local businessman who once campaigned for the president-elect.

He told local media that he is Trump’s biggest supporter and that “they are really interested in our country, so they are welcome to come and see what our country is like. It’s also about opening up for trade and cooperation.”

The city of Nuuk is the northernmost capital of the world. It has a thriving civil society and a strong press. And there’s some satisfaction that Trump’s comments about Greenland’s independence have gotten him engaged on the international stage.

According to Kuno Fenker, a member of the parliament of the ruling party and a member of the foreign and security committee of the domestic parliament, there should be a Greenland that is not a colony of anyone.

We meet by the harbor under a bronze statue of Hans Egede, an 18th-century missionary who is seen as the man who paved the way for colonization.

“Donald Trump is a politician,” says Mr. Fenker.

“He is a strong businessman, and we know his rhetoric, and this rhetoric is what we have been used to since 2019, and here in the Arctic and how we can solve things in the Arctic, it is only a matter of talking with a counterpart. Also in NATO.”

Mr. Fenker presents the central argument of libertarians.

What is needed here is for Greenland to negotiate directly with the United States as a sovereign nation, not for Denmark to do it for us.

Freeing from Denmark can result in high financial costs.

Greenland receives about a fifth of its GDP in subsidies from Copenhagen each year. Mr Fenker said other dignitaries here suggest the island is negotiating with the US and Denmark for support.

“We are not naive about this. We need support in defence, security and economic development. We want a sustainable and self-sufficient economy.”

Maana Egede, editor of local newspaper Sermisiak, admits he is concerned about Donald Trump’s implied threat of violence, but wants to see how the reality matches up with his rhetoric.

Regarding independence, Mr. Igede is upset that the media – both locally and internationally – are treating it as a polarized debate.

“We should be telling this story very much about freedom or independence. But there’s this whole story, people want freedom, but not at any price. There’s a standard of living that needs to be maintained. There’s a trade-off that needs to be settled.”

It is expected that at some point – not soon – there will be a vote of support and Denmark will accept the result.

The island’s Prime Minister Mute Egede at a press conference with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen following Donald Trump’s latest comments.

“We don’t want to be Denmark, we don’t want to be American, we want to be Greenland,” he said. The Danish Prime Minister is careful not to offend anyone.

“The debate over Greenland’s independence and recent announcements from the US show us the great interest in Greenland,” she said. “Events that created many thoughts and feelings with many in Greenland and Denmark.”

Mrs. Frederiksen knows very well how emotions work in Greenland. Memories of injustice and racism remain fresh among the Inuit here.

In the year Scandals such as the campaign to insert IUDs (Intrauterine Devices) in thousands of Inuit women and girls to prevent pregnancy in the 1960s and 70s strained relations between Greenland and Denmark.

It is not known how many of these procedures were carried out without the consent of the participants, but the number is high. The aim was to depopulate Greenland.

Malina Abelson is a former Minister of Finance in the Government of Greenland and now a consultant to companies and organizations operating on the island. She also worked for UNICEF Denmark and managed Greenlandic businesses such as the seafood group, Royal Greenland.

Ms. Abelson believes more needs to be done to address the injustices of the past.

“I think a lot of people are saying, maybe the Danish government and the state too, “Oh well, you know this happened in the past. This is many years ago. How can we be responsible for that? he is. He has time to move on.

But if you don’t heal and acknowledge what happened to you, you can’t move on. That is a job we have to work with Denmark on, not something Greenland can do on its own.

And despite her own high position in civil society and business, Malina Abelson says that when it comes to racism – for example, jokes about Inuit people – “she can speak for most Greenlanders, we all have experienced that in our lives”.

The issues of self-determination and facing the past are closely related.

Now, Donald Trump’s intervention has put both in front of the world’s eyes.

But the message we hear – from the remote settlements in the fjords to the capital Nuuk – is that Greenland’s fate must be decided here, among people whose voices have been ignored for too long.

With additional reporting by Adrian Murray and Kostas Kalrgis.