Denmark’s prime minister said on Monday that President Trump “should be taken seriously when he says he wants Greenland,” a day after Mr. Trump repeated his threats — following the U.S. military raid on Venezuela — to also take the semiautonomous Danish territory.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark made her comments in an interview with DR, the Danish broadcaster, calling his threats “unacceptable pressure.”
“If the United States were to choose to attack another NATO country, then everything would come to an end,” she said in another interview, with Live News, a Danish news channel, adding, “The international community as we know it, democratic rules of the game, NATO, the world’s strongest defensive alliance — all of that would collapse if one NATO country chose to attack another.”
Ms. Frederiksen’s warnings came a day after she put out a statement directly urging Mr. Trump to “stop the threats” to take over Greenland, which he made in the fragile hours after the American raid on Venezuela. Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen of Greenland also rejected Mr. Trump’s comments, writing on social media that his rhetoric was “utterly unacceptable” and that comparing Greenland to Venezuela in that regard was “wrong” and “disrespectful.”
The two leaders spoke after Mr. Trump repeated his desire to control the island in an interview with The Atlantic magazine.
But just hours after their joint condemnations, Mr. Trump doubled down. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security,” he told reporters on Air Force One, adding that he thought Denmark was not doing enough to safeguard the vast mineral-rich territory.
“You know what Denmark did recently to boost up security on Greenland?” he joked. “They added one more dog sled.”
Ms. Frederiksen, on Monday night, took that joke very seriously: Denmark has made investing in its Arctic defense a major focus of the past year.
“That is not factually correct,” she said in a third interview, on TV2, another Danish channel, adding, “If the American president means what he says, then the situation is as serious as I believe most people understand it to be.”
“I believe he means it seriously,” she added. “He wants Greenland. This is a conflict — we agree on that.”
In her statement on Sunday, Ms. Frederiksen made it clear that she thought Mr. Trump was out of line. She noted that Denmark was a member of NATO and that a defense agreement with the United States already gave Washington “wide access to Greenland.” And, she said, Denmark was working to increase its defense capabilities in the Arctic.
The Sunday statements also followed a separate American provocation: a post on social media from Katie Miller, the wife of Stephen Miller, one of Mr. Trump’s top advisers.
“SOON,” she wrote, with a map of Greenland shaded in by the American flag.
Jesper Moller Sorensen, Denmark’s ambassador to the United States, responded to Ms. Miller’s post with a “friendly reminder” that Denmark expected “full respect for the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Denmark.”
Several of Denmark’s European neighbors, as well as the European Union, raced to repeat their longstanding support for Denmark and Greenland.
“We would recall that Greenland is an ally to the U.S. and is also covered by the NATO alliance, and that is a big, big difference” from the situation in Venezuela, Paula Pinho, a spokeswoman for the European Commission, said at a news conference on Monday.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain told reporters that he agreed with Ms. Frederiksen. “Denmark is a close European ally, a close NATO ally,” he said, and it was up to its leaders and those of Greenland to determine the island’s future.
“No one decides for Greenland and Denmark but Greenland and Denmark themselves,” President Alexander Stubb of Finland wrote on social media.
Mr. Trump’s comments, in the wake of his seizure of Venezuela’s president and his wife, were the latest in a series of actions that have unsettled the leaders of Denmark and Greenland in recent months.
Last month, he outraged officials by appointing a special envoy to the island. It was believed to be the first time that the United States had done so, and it was seen as part of his efforts to acquire the territory. Also last month, Denmark’s military intelligence warned about the United States for the first time in its annual threat assessment, saying that shifts in American policy were generating new uncertainties for Danish security.
The Danish government has also expressed anger over reports that the United States was spying on Greenland and running a covert influence campaign there.
Mr. Trump’s designs on Greenland have become more alarming for Denmark since the U.S. raid in Venezuela on Saturday, even though few Danes expect an imminent invasion, said Mikkel Runge Olesen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies.
“It has gained a lot of traction in Denmark and it has generated a lot of worry,” he said.
The raid in Venezuela “shows the U.S. willingness to use force,” Dr. Olesen added, but he cautioned that comparing the two situations was “a bit of a leap.” American-Venezuelan relations have been “horrible for decades,” he said. “It’s a completely different ballgame to go and invade a NATO ally.”
Jeanna Smialek contributed reporting from Brussels.
Amelia Nierenberg is a Times reporter covering international news from London.
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