President-elect Donald J. Trump has often stated that he wants the United States to buy Greenland, and at a lengthy press conference on Tuesday, he refused to rule out using military force to achieve that aim.
In a considerably more subtle act of geopolitics before Mr. Trump’s words, Denmark’s newly announced monarch, Frederik X, made adjustments to the Danish royal coat of arms that reaffirmed his country’s commitment to Greenland, a sovereign region.
The Danish royal coat of arms, a more ornate sign than the kingdom’s national coat of arms, historically had a panel with three crowns representing the Kalmar Union of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
According to a statement from The Royal House of Denmark, “the Faroe Islands and Greenland have each gotten their own field, which strengthens the Realm’s prominence in the royal coat of arms.” The royal emblem is both the king’s personal coat of arms and a governmental symbol.
According to the statement, the royal coat of arms made its public debut last week when it was displayed on a flag flown at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen for the royal family’s New Year’s feast, as well as on royal cars when guests arrived.
“It is important to signal from the Danish side that Greenland and the Faroe Islands are part of the Danish realm, and that this is not up for discussion,” he said. “This is how you mark it.”
If tweaking a heraldic design seems like a restrained way to convey a political message, Mr. Trump in comparison has been anything but subdued in stressing his interest in American territorial expansion into Greenland.
In a Truth Social post last month, in which he announced that he was appointing Ken Howery, the diplomat and a co-founder of PayPal, as his choice for ambassador to Denmark, Mr. Trump said: “For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”
He stressed his intent again in a post on Monday, in which he said that his son, Donald Trump Jr., would soon be traveling to Greenland. “Greenland is an incredible place,” he said, “and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our Nation.”
When the younger Mr. Trump arrived in the island’s capital of Nuuk on Tuesday, along with an entourage that included the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, he told reporters awaiting him at the airport that he was making a brief visit as a tourist.
But his visit was seen by some in the region as a provocation. Spurred to comment more directly, perhaps in a way that redesigning a royal coat of arms can’t, Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, addressed the public in a television appearance.
“Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland,” she said. “Our future and fight for independence is our business.”
