A Danish soldier who fought alongside American troops in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq marched in subzero temperatures through the streets of Copenhagen on Saturday, driven by outrage against President Trump.
The soldier, Lance Cpl. Soren Teigen, was at the front of a group of veterans who had been bused in from all corners of Denmark for the latest demonstration of anti-American anger, after Mr. Trump’s recent comments belittling the support that NATO allies had given the United States in recent wars.
“I don’t blame American soldiers in any way — we’ve fought side by side, and we still do,” Lance Corporal Teigen said. “But when the president says something like this, of course it hurts.”
The march in Denmark comes at a time when the U.S. relationship with Europe is sinking to a new low, fueled by Mr. Trump’s threats to take over Greenland. For months, Denmark’s leaders have resisted the takeover bid, while residents of Denmark and Greenland have staged protests against Mr. Trump.
Even though Mr. Trump recently declared that he would not seize Greenland by force, he has continued to berate Denmark and his European allies. Last week, Danes were incensed when he claimed that NATO troops who had fought alongside the United States in Afghanistan “stayed a little back, little off the front lines.” Denmark, a NATO ally, lost more soldiers per capita in the conflict than any other nation.
“I think the man is seriously out of his mind,” René Wendt, a retired warrant officer from Denmark who served in Afghanistan in 2012, said of Mr. Trump. “Anyone with even a basic understanding of military service knows exactly what the Danes have contributed in Afghanistan and elsewhere.”
In the past weeks, European leaders have held frantic meetings to strategize how to reduce their dependence on the Trump administration. For Denmark in particular, the threat is existential. Greenland has been an important part of the Danish kingdom for three centuries, and Denmark has rallied European nations to push back against Mr. Trump’s threats.
Polls show that the majority of Greenland’s 57,000 inhabitants oppose living under American control. And the idea of joining a deeply divided nation whose domestic chaos has been on full display in Minneapolis holds little appeal.
For Danes on the mainland, Mr. Trump has not only violated their sovereignty but has also trampled on a decades-old relationship forged on the battlefield. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark publicly expressed her uncertainty this week about how much longer the United States would remain a trusted ally.
“I’m not responsible for what will happen in the U.S.,” she told reporters during a visit to Berlin. “I hope that they will stay in our alliance, but I don’t know what will happen.”
Ms. Frederiksen, who has remained resolute that seizing Greenland is a “red line,” echoed a sadness that some Danish veterans described about the fallout.
“I’m trans-Atlantic in my heart,” she said, “so I feel a bit sad about how things are developing.”
The veterans who marched in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, on Saturday expressed shock at how the leader of the country they had fought beside now denigrated them.
“The U.S. has always been a big brother, the one we expected would show up if something happened,” said Michael Jensen, who completed two tours in Iraq. “I’ve lost colleagues. And we’ve lost Americans, too.”
Danish soldiers fought fierce battles in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand Province and lost 43 people in the conflict. When the United States invaded Iraq, Danish troops followed as part of a NATO force. When Danish soldiers died in battle, American troops traveled from afar to attend their funerals, some veterans said.
Onlookers cheered on Saturday as the Danish military veterans and their families marched. They began at a centuries-old military citadel, a site long associated with the remembrance of Denmark’s armed forces, and walked to the U.S. Embassy. There, they stood in stoic silence, remembering the fallen.
They laid a wreath at the embassy’s entrance, with a ribbon inscribed with the message “In eternal respect for those who fought when the United States activated Article 5.” It was a reference to the core provision in NATO’s founding treaty that requires the alliance to step in when one member is attacked, as NATO did during America’s wars.
The march on Saturday came after thousands of people braved freezing temperatures in coordinated anti-American protests. In Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, demonstrators waved Greenlandic flags and shouted, “Yankee, go home” and “Greenland is already great.” Many Danes and Greenlanders have also begun wearing red baseball caps with the slogan “Make America Go Away.”
This week, when staff at the American Embassy in Copenhagen removed miniature Danish flags from flower beds outside the building, Danish veterans were outraged. The embassy said there had been “no ill will behind the removal of the flags” and restored them.
On Saturday, the veterans placed more flags in the flower beds around the building, then the leaders of the march recited the name of each Danish soldier who had died in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Jeffrey Gettleman contributed reporting.
Lynsey Chutel is a Times reporter based in London who covers breaking news in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
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