We know perfectly well that if we became independent tomorrow, he would invade us immediately,
Roughly nine in ten Greenlanders are Indigenous Inuit. Inuit are not White Europeans. They are genetically related to East Asians.
Tillie Martinussen, a Greenlander, is a politician and former liberal member of parliament who is active in the Cooperation Party. Here is what she said:
“I don’t think Trump knows the Greenlandic people at all. We don’t place much value on money, Kardashian-style lips, or that kind of thing. In Greenland, moreover, you can’t even own land: you can be granted a plot to build your house, and you own the house on top of it, but not the land itself. Greenlanders don’t believe that land belongs to a single person; it belongs to everyone. And the same goes for the sea and the resources it contains. That’s why it’s a huge miscalculation to think Greenlanders can be bought with money. They can’t. And even if someone told us, ‘100,000 dollars per person,’ we would never give up free healthcare, we would never give up free education, we would never give up being part of Europe, we would never give up our sovereignty, which is ultimately our goal anyway.
We don’t want to be rich like Americans. Just look at how greedy they are: they even end up shooting their friends or invading their friends out of pure greed. We know that there may be minerals and oil beneath our soil, and that they are worth far more than any sum of money. But even if there weren’t, we still wouldn’t let ourselves be bought.
Everyone here knows the history of the Inuit in Alaska and of all Native peoples, Indigenous peoples, the Native Americans. Their lands were taken from them, and they were not treated well in the United States. And we know that Trump largely surrounds himself with people connected to white supremacism.
We are not white, as you can see. And so we know that our rights would probably be taken away. We also know that, together with Denmark, we are fine as we are. As I said before, we have free healthcare, free education: whatever you want to study, you can do it without paying anything, and in fact the government even gives you a grant, money while you study. We would never trade any of this away: the welfare state. We wouldn’t exchange it for anything coming from America. (…) No matter what has happened in the past between Denmark and Greenland: we will sort it out among ourselves. As things are now, it’s fine. And if one day we want independence, it will have to be the Greenlanders who decide it, not a superpower exerting pressure from afar.
We know perfectly well that if we became independent tomorrow, he would invade us immediately, because he would have no problem with NATO or with Europe. That’s why I believe he is making a deeply insulting bet on the idea that Greenlanders are stupid, uneducated people who don’t follow world news. But that’s not true. It’s exactly the opposite.
We will be here for hundreds of years after Donald Trump. Even if he invaded us, I think we would simply wait him out, the way you wait out bad weather. Everyone here knows that the weather decides: if a storm comes, we hole up for a day or two. We could hole up for a year, for two years, or even for ten or twenty years, and then we would return to Denmark as soon as Trump and people like him are gone.”
Tillie Martinussen, a Greenlander, is a politician and former liberal member of parliament who is active in the Cooperation Party. Here is what she said:
“I don’t think Trump knows the Greenlandic people at all. We don’t place much value on money, Kardashian-style lips, or that kind of thing. In Greenland, moreover, you can’t even own land: you can be granted a plot to build your house, and you own the house on top of it, but not the land itself. Greenlanders don’t believe that land belongs to a single person; it belongs to everyone. And the same goes for the sea and the resources it contains. That’s why it’s a huge miscalculation to think Greenlanders can be bought with money. They can’t. And even if someone told us, ‘100,000 dollars per person,’ we would never give up free healthcare, we would never give up free education, we would never give up being part of Europe, we would never give up our sovereignty, which is ultimately our goal anyway.
We don’t want to be rich like Americans. Just look at how greedy they are: they even end up shooting their friends or invading their friends out of pure greed. We know that there may be minerals and oil beneath our soil, and that they are worth far more than any sum of money. But even if there weren’t, we still wouldn’t let ourselves be bought.
Everyone here knows the history of the Inuit in Alaska and of all Native peoples, Indigenous peoples, the Native Americans. Their lands were taken from them, and they were not treated well in the United States. And we know that Trump largely surrounds himself with people connected to white supremacism.
We are not white, as you can see. And so we know that our rights would probably be taken away. We also know that, together with Denmark, we are fine as we are. As I said before, we have free healthcare, free education: whatever you want to study, you can do it without paying anything, and in fact the government even gives you a grant, money while you study. We would never trade any of this away: the welfare state. We wouldn’t exchange it for anything coming from America. (…) No matter what has happened in the past between Denmark and Greenland: we will sort it out among ourselves. As things are now, it’s fine. And if one day we want independence, it will have to be the Greenlanders who decide it, not a superpower exerting pressure from afar.
We know perfectly well that if we became independent tomorrow, he would invade us immediately, because he would have no problem with NATO or with Europe. That’s why I believe he is making a deeply insulting bet on the idea that Greenlanders are stupid, uneducated people who don’t follow world news. But that’s not true. It’s exactly the opposite.
We will be here for hundreds of years after Donald Trump. Even if he invaded us, I think we would simply wait him out, the way you wait out bad weather. Everyone here knows that the weather decides: if a storm comes, we hole up for a day or two. We could hole up for a year, for two years, or even for ten or twenty years, and then we would return to Denmark as soon as Trump and people like him are gone.”
