Greenlanders unite to fend off U.S. as Trump seeks control of Arctic island

Greenlanders fear US President Trump's designs on their homeland, sparking tensions and fears of losing independence.

Lisa Solrun Christiansen gets up at 4 a.m. most days and gets to work knitting thick wool sweaters coveted by buyers around the world for their warmth and colorful patterns celebrating Greenland's traditional Inuit culture.

Her morning routine includes a quick check of the news, but these days the ritual shatters her peace because of all the stories about U.S. President Donald Trump's designs on her homeland.

“I get overwhelmed,'' Ms. Christiansen said earlier this month as she looked out to sea, where impossibly blue icebergs floated just offshore.

The daughter of Inuit and Danish parents, Ms. Christiansen, 57, cherishes Greenland. It is a source of immense family pride that her father, an artist and teacher, designed the red-and-white Greenlandic flag.

“On his deathbed he talked a lot about the flag, and he said that the flag is not his, it's the people's,” she said. “And there's one sentence I keep thinking about. He said, I hope the flag will unite the Greenlandic people."

Greenlanders are increasingly worried that their homeland, a self-governing region of Denmark, has become a pawn in the competition between the U.S., Russia and China as global warming opens up access to the Arctic. They fear Mr. Trump's aim to take control of Greenland, which holds rich mineral deposits and straddles strategic air and sea routes, may block their path toward independence.

Those fears were heightened Sunday (March 23, 2025) when Usha Vance, the wife of U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, announced she would visit Greenland later this week to attend the national dogsled race. Separately, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will visit a U.S. military base in northern Greenland.