On Wednesday, Danish radio reported that government and security sources believe that at least three Americans with connections to Mr. Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland.
The network said it sources believed one of the Americans has been compiling lists of Greenlandic citizens for and against Mr. Trump’s overtures, in a bid to build a list of citizens on the island who could potentially be recruited for a Greenlandic secession movement.
The other Americans “have tried to cultivate contacts with politicians, businesspeople and citizens, and the sources’ concern is that these contacts could secretly be used to support Donald Trump’s desire to take over Greenland.”
Responding to DR’s reporting, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement sent to French news agency AFP that the ministry was “aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position in the Kingdom of Denmark. It is therefore not surprising if we experience outside attempts to influence the future of the Kingdom in the time ahead.”
“Any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the kingdom will of course be unacceptable,” he said, confirming that he had “asked the ministry of foreign affairs to summon the U.S. charge d’affaires for a meeting at the ministry.”
The White House did not offer an immediate comment.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/denmark-us-greenland-trump-covert-influence-operations-report/
BREAKING: Denmark just summoned the U.S. envoy after Trump allies were caught running covert ops in Greenland (!). Europe must plan for the worst: this confirms the U.S. under Trump isn’t just unreliable — it’s a threat. pic.twitter.com/T3UFeKvdaU
— Andrew—#IAmTheResistance (@AmoneyResists) August 27, 2025
From Denmark (translated)
The streets are covered in snow when an American man with close ties to the President of the United States and the White House lands in Nuuk.
The man is on a mission: During his visit, he will draw up a list of names of Greenlandic citizens who support President Donald Trump’s plans to take over Greenland.
The list will consist of Greenlanders, whom the American will try to recruit into a secessionist movement across Greenland and Denmark.
The man is one of at least three Americans with connections to Donald Trump, who conducts covert influence operations in Greenland.
It assesses key government and authority sources as well as sources in Greenland and the USA, with whom DR has held several meetings since the inauguration of Donald Trump as president in January this year.
It is the sources themselves who use words such as “infiltration” and “influence operations”, and who assess that the goal of the operations is to penetrate Greenlandic society in order to weaken the relationship with Denmark from within and make the Greenlanders subjugate the United States.
DR knows the names of the American men, but has chosen not to bring them to protect DR’s sources.
He also collected names of people opposed to Donald Trump, a source said.
The American man, who has been seen with the US president many times in public, has recently been appointed to a role that could give him influence on US security policy.
In Nuuk, he also got Greenlanders to identify cases that can be used to put Denmark in a bad light in the American media.
Two other American men – whose activities also worry the authorities – have regularly traveled back and forth between Greenland and the USA in recent years. Both men previously worked under Donald Trump.
In Greenland, they have tried to nurture contacts with politicians, business people and citizens, and the sources’ concern is that these contacts can be used in secret to support Donald Trump’s desire to take over Greenland.
For reasons of source, DR cannot give concrete details about what it is about the actions of the two men that worries the authorities.
‘One way or another we get it’, said Donald Trump about Greenland in March this year:
The assessment is that the Trump administration’s strategy to take over Greenland has been divided into three phases since Donald Trump announced in December 2024 that American “ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity”.
The first phase was to direct a charm offensive against the Greenlanders –, including by sending President Donald Trump’s son on a much-publicized visit to Nuuk in January.
Then came a phase of pressure on Denmark, where Vice President JD. Among other things, Vance traveled to the American Pituffik base in Greenland in March this year and in a speech criticized Denmark for failing the Greenlanders.
In the spring, the strategy must have entered a third phase, which is about infiltrating Greenlandic society.
Here there was public speculation as to whether the US could use military force to take over Greenland – spurred on by the fact that Donald Trump himself has several times not wanted to rule out that possibility.