Denmark’s foreign minister on Tuesday criticised a social media post by US President Donald Trump that depicted Greenland and Iceland as part of the United States, describing the image as “completely inappropriate.”
Trump shared the map on his Truth Social platform on Monday without any accompanying text. The graphic showed the United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean covered by the American flag and labelled “United States of America.”
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said the post was “disturbing and, in many ways, also completely inappropriate.”
“It’s obviously a sign that the US president still harbours some kind of maximalist vision in his own mind. We need to rein that in,” Rasmussen told national broadcaster DR.
Iceland also reacted strongly, summoning the US ambassador to Reykjavik for a formal meeting. Iceland’s Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir said the government had made clear that the post was “completely inappropriate” and “completely unacceptable.”
“It is absolutely clear that this is a fundamental principle. In my view, this is not a joke, and if it is meant to be a joke, it is a very poor one,” she said.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, speaking in Nuuk, Greenland, reiterated that the island’s government and people have repeatedly rejected any idea of becoming part of the United States.
“The Greenlandic government and the Greenlandic people have said again and again that they do not want to be American,” Frederiksen said. “I hope no one is in any doubt about that, either in the United States or the rest of the world.”
The map showed the United States, Canada, Mexico, part of Central America, Greenland, Iceland as well as islands in the Caribbean including Cuba and Jamaica and French territories —such as St. Barts, Guadeloupe and Martinique — covered by the U.S. flag, with the entire landmass labeled “United States of America.”
The episode is the latest flare-up in tensions stemming from Trump’s longstanding interest in acquiring Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark.
