Greenland's prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said many of the Danish semi-autonomous territory's residents "don't feel safe" as a result of President Donald Trump's repeated threats to take it over.
Speaking to NBC News, Nielsen said Trump's rhetoric is "an unacceptable pressure to put on the Greenlandic people." "A lot of people don't feel safe," he said, adding, "Some have been scared. Now it's turning into anger," he added.
The official went on to say that even though Trump appears to have backed off from seeking to take over Greenland, "he has never been taking that desire to own or control Greenland off the table."
Asked if he still believes the U.S. could use force to get concessions from Denmark and the island, especially considering the operation that captured Venezuela's former authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro earlier this year, he said "of course."
"The Greenlandic people, a lot of them thought that way: We might be next," Nielsen said. "And I know other countries also think like that."
Different reports have recounted that Denmark has taken Trump's rhetoric seriously. In fact, the country used military drills to disguise actual preparations to resist a potential U.S. invasion earlier this year.
Danish outlet DR claimed that the "Arctic Endurance" drill included an actual deployment of troops with blood reserves and explosives. Urgency levels increased following the capture of Maduro.
Even though Trump did not follow through on the threats to take over Greenland for national security purposes, Denmark and allies did deploy troops in the island in January.
DR claimed that it had access to a military order authorizing the deployment on January 13. "As Trump constantly said he wanted to buy Greenland and then we saw what happened in Venezuela, we had to seriously consider all possible scenarios," a military official told the outlet.
The officer added that they were joined by French, German and Swedish troops joined the drills as well. "There was no ambiguity."
