Can Trump’s bid for Greenland put an end to Denmark’s belief in colonial exceptionalism?

von NORDfor

By Ebbe Volquardsen

In 1918, the Danish historian Louis Bobé wrote an effusive declaration of love for Greenland. In Tamalât: Landet bag hav (»Tamalât: The Land Beyond the Sea«), he described the island as »the last feather in Denmark’s hat« and hoped that God would protect it from arrogant Englishmen, enterprising Americans, and narrow-minded Germans (Bobé 1918). The text was written after the sale of Denmark’s last colony in the south. In 1917, the former Danish West Indies became the U.S. Virgin Islands. At the same time, the U.S. recognized Denmark’s sovereignty over Greenland. During a royal visit in 1921, Denmark for the first time declared all of Greenland as its territory, not just the scattered trading posts along the coast.

In the old days, nobles and military men would decorate their hats with feathers to show their status and power. When Bobé metaphorically makes Greenland the last such ornament, it appears as Denmark’s last status object after a series of losses: Norway in 1814, the present-day German state of Schleswig-Holstein fifty years later, the colonies in Africa and South Asia in the mid-nineteenth century, and finally the islands in the Caribbean. Bobé’s words are an early example of what sociologist Paul Gilroy later called »postcolonial melancholia«: the nostalgic longing for less conflictual times and a sense of grief over the loss of status and power in post-imperial societies (Gilroy 2004).

Bobé’s warnings against supposedly malevolent great powers also reveal a figure of thought that still hinders a respectful relationship between Denmark and its former colony: colonial exceptionalism. The term stands for a political ideology that portrays Danish colonialism – compared to the behavior of other European empires in their colonies – as a more charitable, humane, if not harmless endeavor. Like the other Scandinavian countries, Denmark saw itself as an exception in the modern world: an exceptionally peaceful, charitable society, a unique embodiment of solidary, egalitarian, and progressive politics. The Nordics were seen as the »Good West,« and for countries like Denmark this ideal became a national self-image, even though Scandinavians were also involved in colonial exploitation, transatlantic enslavement, and the oppression of ethnic minorities (Körber/Volquardsen 2023).

In line with the notion of colonial exceptionalism, criticism and demands from Greenlanders, some 90 percent of whom identify as indigenous Inuit, are often seen as expressions of resentment and ingratitude. »We have always been taught that we were the best colony in the world: no slavery, no murder,« wrote anthropologist Aviâja Egede Lynge (2010) years before terms like decolonization were even used in Greenland.

Since December 2024, even the »last feather in Denmark’s hat« has wavered. Just before Christmas, Donald Trump – an enterprising American straight out of Bobé’s book – repeated his 2019 plan to make Greenland a US territory. While five years ago he spoke of a purchase, Trump now does not even exclude military means. On January 7, Trump’s son Donald Jr. unexpectedly landed in Greenland’s capital Nuuk with a large entourage to record videos of supposedly pro-Trump Greenlanders for his social media channels. He didn’t hesitate to pick up poor and homeless people in front of the town’s shopping mall, put MAGA hats on them, and invite them to lunch at a restaurant they normally couldn’t afford – all to get some good pictures.

Right-wing Influencers hand out dollar bills in Nuuk

Since then, right-wing American influencers have repeatedly been spotted in the town, luring children and socially disadvantaged teenagers with attention, pizza lunches and even 100-dollar bills to take part in their staged campaigns, giving their American followers the impression that Greenlanders want to become American citizens – and that they need to be saved from alleged Danish racism. Even a cyber-war on social media – previously known to be waged primarily by Russian troll armies – has begun. »Elon Musk offers to help Greenlanders improve their economic well-being,« read a fake news report in the style of Greenland’s public broadcaster KNR.

The old Trump, interested in Greenland’s militarily strategic location, rare earths, and the shipping routes opening up due to climate change, did the Greenlanders an unintended favor in 2019. By presenting the 500-million-euro block grant that Denmark pays into Greenland’s budget each year as the market value of what countries are willing to pay for a military and commercial presence in Greenland, he strengthened the Greenlanders’ bargaining position from which they demanded more autonomy and recognition of historical injustices from Denmark.

But the recent rhetoric of aggression has also caused unease in Greenland, which is already witnessing growing tensions between the major powers vying for the Arctic. »On thin ice, you have to find your way carefully, and we are now on thin ice,« said Aqqaluk Lynge, the founding father of the left-green governing party, Inuit Ataqatigiit (IA). Others, such as Justice Minister Naaja Nathanielsen (IA), emphasize the benefits of renewed international attention to Greenland. It helps, she said to The Guardian, to represent Greenland’s interests in Denmark, which is finally listening.

A history marked by assimilation policies

And the Danes? »I will remember January 7 as the day we first saw the true face of Danish fear at the loss of Greenland,« commented Greenlandic author and filmmaker Aká Hansen (2025). The Danish reaction has been one of dismay, shock and post-colonial melancholia. On social media, many Danes warned Greenlanders, as Bobé did more than 100 years ago, against the United States, listing American crimes against indigenous peoples and minorities. The fact that Danish-Greenlandic history is marked by similar abuses was – another symptom of exceptionalism – rarely mentioned.

As recently as December, Inuit and their supporters had demonstrated in Danish and Greenlandic cities. The protests were against Danish municipalities’ practice of taking away parental rights from mothers of Greenlandic origin based on aptitude tests that are not adapted to Greenlandic culture. »Her culturally influenced way of communicating with her newborn, prevents successful socialization in Danish society,« a leaked memo said – an example of systemic racism and a violation of the human rights of Greenlanders, whose indigenous culture enjoys special protection under ILO Convention 169, which Denmark has ratified. Inuit children in Denmark are six to seven times more likely to be forcibly adopted, and many Greenlandic mothers associate for example educational stays in Denmark with fear of encroachments on the part of the authorities.

What is particularly embarrassing for the Danish government is that the recent cases of custodial deprivation are reminiscent of the assimilation policies of the 1960s and 1970s, from which it has only recently begun to distance itself. After the colony was incorporated into the Danish state as an officially equal province in 1953, Danish policy aimed to turn the Inuit into »Northern Danes«. This was not only to make the UN believe that Danes and Greenlanders were one and the same people (Hermann 2021). It also reflected the Danish self-image as an ethnically homogeneous and socially progressive cultural nation. Ethnic conflicts and independence struggles were supposed to take place elsewhere – Greenlanders would soon understand what a privilege it was to be citizens of one of the best countries in the world – with a welfare system that was the envy of many.

This assumption has been proven wrong. The systematic nature of abuses under the assimilation policy has become clearer in recent years. Yet, as recently as 2013, Denmark refused to participate in a reconciliation commission. It wasn’t until 2022 that Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen apologized in Nuuk to survivors of the »1951 experiment,« in which Inuit children were forcibly removed from their families and sent to Denmark to become a Danish-speaking elite. Until recently, this was considered a regrettable mistake in an otherwise successful modernization policy. Today it stands as just one of many examples of a system that disenfranchised, relocated and subjected numerous Greenlanders to state abuse between the 1950s and 1970s.

Meanwhile, an awareness of identity politics has developed in Greenland. As philosopher Karsten Schubert (2024) notes, identity politics plays a central role in the democratization of democracy, which promises true equality and freedom for all people. This ideal is also claimed by the Danish state. Identity politics makes it possible to develop perspectives from which discrimination can be challenged and criticized. Based on a shared identity, marginalized groups can challenge the structures and norms of majority society that disadvantage them. Identifying common experiences and interests creates a collective voice that can not only articulate but also effectively critique exclusion and discrimination.

Victims of state abuse such as the »legally fatherless« and victims of questionable adoption practices first had to recognize that their experiences were part of systematic discrimination based on their ethnicity – not just individual experiences. Children born out of wedlock often had no right to identify their biological, often Danish, fathers or to inherit their property until the 1970s. Hundreds of children were adopted into Denmark without their parents being informed of the implications of this step. Among Inuit, adoption often had a different meaning: child-rich families temporarily gave their offspring to relatives or childless acquaintances, without ruling out a later reunion of the family.

The fact that many marriages at this time remained childless is the result of another scandal, the true extent of which is only now coming to light. In the 1960s, to slow population growth, which had increased significantly because of improved health care, Danish doctors introduced IUDs as a form of coercively administered contraception for young Inuit women and girls – half of all women of childbearing age – without the consent of the girls and women or their parents. The program not only led to traumatized women and a lost generation of Greenlanders who are now missing, not least because of labor shortages, but also to widespread and potentially fatal skepticism about the health care system. Greenland’s Prime Minister, Múte B. Egede (IA), called it genocide.

A more equal relationship doesn’t come with less conflict

If Denmark wants to keep the union with Greenland – and it is in its geopolitical interest to do so – it must confront the abuses and develop a more inclusive state identity. This has now been recognized by the government in Copenhagen. Expert commissions have already been set up. Greenland, on the other hand, has recently taken concrete steps towards independence, which it is entitled to under the Home Rule Act of 2009. A draft constitution for a sovereign Greenland was presented in 2023, and in 2024 the parliament in decided to prepare steps towards statehood. To add to the pressure, Nuuk has also considered negotiating a free association agreement with the U.S. or Canada, following the example of some island nations in the Pacific.

In Denmark, however, the trend toward more uncomfortable and complex images of history has also met with resistance. Even before the latest developments, Danish-Greenlandic relations were described in the Danish press as at a low point. But sociologist Aladin El-Mafaalani’s reflections allow for other conclusions. According to him, it is a fallacy to believe that periods when minorities gain more influence are necessarily characterized by less tension and conflict. Often the opposite is true, and he calls this phenomenon the integration paradox (El-Mafaalani 2018).

The majority must get used to considering voices and views that previously – due to unequal power relations – played a marginal or no role. At the same time, the minority discovers that persistent demands lead to success. Therefore, it begins to address experiences of discrimination that were previously considered hopeless to bring up. This gives the impression of an escalation of the conflict, when in fact more equality has been achieved.

The opposite of assimilation, which has characterized Danish Greenland policy to date, is integration. Whereas assimilation means that the minority is forced to give up its identity and adapt to the majority, integration offers the opportunity to be equal while maintaining cultural distinctiveness. This kind of equality is increasingly demanded by Greenlandic stakeholders – and significant progress has already been made in this direction. In response to the persistent insistence of the Greenlanders, Denmark has recently more often distanced itself from exceptionalist and assimilationist notions and presented itself as the multiethnic federation it has de facto been for decades. This development stands in stark contrast to the idea of the homogeneous nation-state on which Danish national identity has been based since the mid-19th century, when the shrinking of the previously medium-sized empire could no longer be denied.

After much pressure from the Greenlandic MP Aki-Mathilda Høegh-Dam (Siumut), Greenlandic has been recognized as a working language in the Danish Parliament, Denmark has supported Greenland’s wish for full membership in the Nordic Council, and the Arctic ambassador for the Danish state will in future be chosen by Greenland. On the more symbolic side, for the first time a Greenlandic artist, photographer Inuuteq Storch, represented Denmark at the Venice Biennale in 2024, and one of the new Danish banknotes will feature the portrait of expedition participant Arnarulunnguaq, a North Greenlandic woman who has been marginalized by a male-centered and Eurocentric historiography. Even a solution to the much-criticized parental fitness tests was found surprisingly quickly, just days after Trump’s renewed push. In future, all parental fitness cases in Denmark involving Inuit will be handled by a team of Greenlandic psychologists and social workers.

As the examples show, a remarkable process is underway, driven primarily by the persistent demands of Greenlandic stakeholders. Gradually, the contours of a common state identity are emerging that does not seek to impose homogeneity but rather creates equal space for both Danes and Greenlanders. This is the essence of the federal idea. However, it is also clear that there is still a lot of debate and struggle to be done before this equal interaction can be put into practice.

»We don’t want to be Americans or Danes – we want to be Greenlanders,« Múte B. Egede reiterated during a remarkable press conference with his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, and in a recent live interview with Fox News‚ Bret Baier. He thereby summed up the attitude of a vast majority of his countrymen. The Danish government’s willingness to meet Greenland’s demands has increased significantly in recent weeks. During the press conference, Frederiksen emphasized that the union with Greenland not only had to change but would change. She repeatedly used the term »colonialism,« a word that Danish politicians have mostly avoided when talking about Greenland.

In a recent television debate organized jointly by the Danish TV2 and KNR at the Katuaq cultural center in Nuuk, there was an unusually high level of agreement between the representatives of all Greenlandic parties and the Danish ruling coalition. The tenor: Greenland’s future will be decided in Greenland. The union between Denmark and Greenland must be renewed and made more equal. In addition, apologies for historical abuses are necessary. Múte B. Egede summed up the situation well: »Two weeks ago we would not have been able to have such a debate.«

Nevertheless, the desire for Greenlandic statehood remains strong. But in Nuuk, they are aware that they will continue to need strong partners in the future. It remains to be seen whether Trump’s threats will lead to a new Danish exceptionalism or open up a previously blocked path to a truly equal federation. If the trend suggests that Denmark is indeed ready for the latter, it is not impossible that entirely new models could emerge. Even the possibility of a free association – not between a Greenlandic and an American state, but with Denmark – has become more likely. However, the decision as to whether what Denmark will soon offer Nuuk is attractive enough to convince a majority of Greenlanders, lies solely with them.

Ebbe Volquardsen is Associate Professor of Cultural History at Ilisimatusarfik, the University of Greenland in Nuuk.

Cited works
Bobé, Louis (1918): Tamalât: Landet bag Hav. København: Hagerup.
El-Mafaalani, Aladin (2018): Das Integrations-Paradox. Warum gelungene Integration zu mehr Konflikten führt. Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch.
Gilroy, Paul (2004): Postcolonial Melancholia. New York: Columbia University Press.
Hansen, Aká (2025): Det er på tide, at Danmark tager ansvar for sin koloniale fortid. In: Altinget.dk, 9.1.2025.
Hermann, Anne Kirstine (2021): Imperiets børn. København: Lindhardt & Ringhof.
Körber, Lill-Ann & Ebbe Volquardsen (2023): Nordischer Exzeptionalismus. In: Bernd Henningsen (ed.): Nordeuropa: Handbuch für Wissenschaft und Studium. Nomos: Baden-Baden, 74-80.
Lynge, Aviâja Egede (2010): Den bedste koloni i verden. In: Iben Mondrup (ed.): Kuuk: Kunst i omegnen af Grønland. København: Hurricane, 67-73.
Schubert, Karsten (2024): Lob der Identitätspolitik. München: C.H. Beck.

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