{"id":364138,"date":"2025-12-22T19:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T19:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/364138\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T19:00:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T19:00:12","slug":"trumps-envoy-appointment-sparks-new-tension-with-leaders-of-greenland-and-denmark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/364138\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s envoy appointment sparks new tension with leaders of Greenland and Denmark"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The leaders of Denmark and Greenland insisted Monday that the United States won\u2019t take over Greenland and demanded respect for their territorial integrity after President Donald Trump announced the appointment of a special envoy to the semi-autonomous territory.<\/p>\n<p>Trump\u2019s announcement on Sunday that Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry would be the envoy prompted a new flare-up of tensions over Washington\u2019s interest in the vast territory of Denmark, a NATO ally. Denmark\u2019s foreign minister told Danish broadcasters that he would summon the U.S. ambassador to his ministry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201dWe have said it before. Now, we say it again. National borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in international law,\u201d Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and her Greenlandic counterpart, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said in a joint statement. \u201cThey are fundamental principles. You cannot annex another country. Not even with an argument about international security.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreenland belongs to the Greenlanders and the U.S. shall not take over Greenland,\u201d they added in the statement emailed by Frederiksen\u2019s office. \u201cWe expect respect for our joint territorial integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump called repeatedly during his presidential transition and the early months of his second term for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island. In March, Vice President JD Vance visited a remote U.S. military base in Greenland and accused Denmark of under-investing there.<\/p>\n<p>The issue gradually drifted out of the headlines, but in August, Danish officials summoned the top U.S. diplomat in Copenhagen following a report that at least three people with connections to Trump had carried out covert influence operations in Greenland.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/politics\/trump-says-hes-appointing-louisiana-gov-jeff-landry-to-serve-as-u-s-special-envoy-to-greenland\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trump says he\u2019s appointing Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry to serve as U.S. special envoy to Greenland<\/a><\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, Trump announced Landry\u2019s appointment, saying on social media that \u201cJeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country\u2019s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Landry wrote in a post on social media that \u201cit\u2019s an honor to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration did not offer any warning ahead of the announcement, according to a Danish government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.<\/p>\n<p>The official also said Danish officials had expected Trump to signal an aggressive approach to Greenland and the Arctic in the U.S. administration\u2019s new national security strategy and were surprised when the document included no mention of either.<\/p>\n<p>Danish broadcasters TV2 and DR reported that in comments from the Faroe Islands Monday, Danish Foreign Minister Lars L\u00f8kke Rasmussen said he would summon the U.S. ambassador in Copenhagen, Kenneth Howery, to his ministry.<\/p>\n<p>Greenland\u2019s prime minister wrote in a separate statement that Greenland had again woken up to a new announcement from the U.S. president, and that \u201cit may sound significant. But it changes nothing for us here at home.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nielsen noted that Greenland has its own democracy and said that \u201cwe are happy to cooperate with other countries, including the United States, but this must always take place with respect for us and for our values and wishes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, the Danish Defense Intelligence Service said in an annual report that the U.S. is using its economic power to \u201cassert its will\u201d and threaten military force against friend and foe alike.<\/p>\n<p>Denmark is a member of the European Union as well as NATO.<\/p>\n<p>The president of the EU\u2019s executive commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on social media that Arctic security is a \u201ckey priority\u201d for the bloc and one on which it seeks to work with allies and partners. She also said that \u201cterritorial integrity and sovereignty are fundamental principles of international law.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe stand in full solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani in West Palm Beach, Fla., contributed.<\/p>\n<p>\n                    A free press is a cornerstone of a healthy democracy.\n                <\/p>\n<p class=\"invite_body\">\n                    Support trusted journalism and civil dialogue.\n                <\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/give.newshour.org\/page\/88646\/donate\/1?ea.tracking.id=pbs_news_sept_2025_article&amp;supporter.appealCode=N2509AW1000100\" class=\"donation-link ga-click-funding ga-click-ender-funding\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                    Donate now<\/p>\n<p>                <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The leaders of Denmark and Greenland insisted Monday that the United States won\u2019t take over Greenland and demanded&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-364138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}