Trump’s Greenland push almost broke NATO. Greenland may be the winner

David Keyton, MDT/AP

In the end, it was all kisses and laughter as President Donald Trump hailed his “fantastic” relationship with Denmark and Greenland after signing a security deal that European allies hope will close one of the most dangerous chapters in transatlantic relations.

Trump’s territorial ambitions over Greenland almost broke NATO and shattered trust with one of America’s oldest partners. The agreement ends the standoff. But was it worth the cost?

The United States already had extensive military access under a 1951 deal. All the gains in the agreement signed Tuesday at the U.N. General Assembly could, ostensibly, have been achieved by asking nicely a year ago. The distrust created since late 2024 seems a high price for an incremental gain.

Yet one place may emerge as the real winner: Greenland itself.

Promised investments and contracts may never fully materialize, but the episode marks a major step toward greater autonomy. Greenland is no longer merely the subject of foreign policy decided by its former colonial rulers. Increasingly, it is helping shape it.

“A notable change is Greenland itself at the table today, signing this agreement,” said Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.

That is an understatement. The island, home to about 56,000 mostly Inuit people, remained a colony until the early 1950s. It became self-governing within the Kingdom of Denmark only in 2009. While legislation recognized its right to independence, Denmark retained control of defense and foreign affairs.

“This is the first time that we are venturing into a binding agreement as a country,” Naaja Nathanielsen, one of Greenland’s lawmakers in Denmark’s parliament, told The Associated Press. “That is a huge step forward in our quest for more self-autonomy.”

Denmark’s ties with Greenland remain complicated. Economic dependence and family connections coexist with centuries of policies that dehumanized Greenlanders: forced contraception, the removal of Inuit children for reeducation and controversial parental-competency tests that separated families.

The abuses are not distant history. Hundreds of Inuit women have sought compensation over intrauterine devices fitted without informed consent. Danish authorities estimate that up to 4,500 women and girls received IUDs between the 1960s and mid-1970s. An official apology finally came in summer 2025.

The U.S. standoff focused Danish attention on reconciliation, said researcher Ulrik Pram Gad, though some Greenlanders may find it less credible because of Trump’s pressure.

Meanwhile, anger at Trump’s tactics softened calls for rapid independence. At the crisis’s height, Nielsen said that “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO.”

For Denmark, the victory is getting Trump off its back and framing the crisis as a European security problem. Danish and Greenlandic diplomats worked to involve European allies in what Pram Gad called “an attempt to patch together the NATO alliance.”

Denmark accepted some limitations to its sovereignty, although investments by adversaries such as Russia had long been off the table.

For Denmark and Greenland, preserving the transatlantic alliance, or at least preventing the island from becoming the occasion for Trump to destroy it, weighed heavily in their assessment of the agreement’s costs and benefits.

Relief after Tuesday’s signing was palpable. But the crisis has scarred a once-solid bond. Leaders in Copenhagen, Nuuk and other European capitals must now assess America’s reliability – and whether a signed agreement can repair broken trust. [Abridged]