The Danish foreign minister fist-bumped his ambassador and then rushed up to Greenland’s foreign minister and lit her cigarette. They had just met with U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In the Jan. 14 meeting, they discussed U.S. President Donald Trump’s desire to “own” Greenland, the Greenlandic people’s firm opposition to being owned, and how they can all move forward in light of this impasse.

As the smoke settled between the high-level diplomats outside the embassy’s car, a new view was settling in across the Atlantic Ocean. Whatever happens next, Denmark, and its relationship with the United States, has changed irreversibly.

The Danish foreign minister fist-bumped his ambassador and then rushed up to Greenland’s foreign minister and lit her cigarette. They had just met with U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. In the Jan. 14 meeting, they discussed U.S. President Donald Trump’s desire to “own” Greenland, the Greenlandic people’s firm opposition to being owned, and how they can all move forward in light of this impasse.

As the smoke settled between the high-level diplomats outside the embassy’s car, a new view was settling in across the Atlantic Ocean. Whatever happens next, Denmark, and its relationship with the United States, has changed irreversibly.

“We put all our eggs in the United States’ basket. We’re ‘super-Atlanticists.’ We’ve gone far further in our support of the U.S. than many other nations. We’ve really prioritized the relationship to the U.S., but it will never be the same again,” said Mikkel Runge Olesen, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies.

“The most trans-Atlantic politicians are the most bitter and skeptical. [Danish Prime Minister] Mette Frederiksen and [former NATO Secretary-General] Anders Fogh Rasmussen, for example,” Olesen said. “I think, from a Danish perspective, the idea of the USA as our security strategy is gone. Now we’re looking for a European alternative. It’s been an expensive lesson. We trusted the Americans, and we never should have done that.”

The Jan. 14 meeting did nothing to assuage Danish opinion. Trump has not curbed his enthusiasm for owning Greenland—or “conquering”........

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