Over the past month, President-elect Donald J. Trump has repeatedly discussed his desire for the United States to acquire Greenland, and during a lengthy press conference Tuesday he refused to rule out using military force to achieve that goal.
In a much more subtle geopolitical act that preceded Trump’s remarks, Denmark’s newly proclaimed king, Frederik X, implemented changes to the Danish royal coat of arms that reaffirm his kingdom’s commitment to Greenland, a sovereign territory.
The Danish royal coat of arms – a more elaborate symbol of the kingdom’s national coat of arms – had previously featured a panel with three crowns representing the Kalmar Union between Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Those crowns have now been removed, with separate panels dedicated to Greenland (represented by a polar bear) and the Faroe Islands (represented by a ram). In the previous royal coat of arms, the Greenland polar bear was in the same lower left panel, but was much smaller.
A statement from the Royal House of Denmark states that “the Faroe Islands and Greenland have each been granted their own field, which reinforces the importance of the Kingdom in the royal coat of arms.” The royal symbol is a coat of arms for the king’s personal use and also a state symbol.
According to the statement, the royal coat of arms was put on public display last week when it was depicted on a flag raised at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen for the royal family’s New Year’s Eve banquet, where it also appeared on royal vehicles as guests arrived .
Lars Hovbakke Sorensen, an expert on the Danish royal family, said in an interview with TV 2 that the discreet nature of the design alteration did not make it any less noticeable.
“It is important to signal from the Danish side that Greenland and the Faroe Islands are part of the Danish kingdom and that this is not up for debate,” he said. “That’s how you score it.”
If modifying a heraldic design seems like a sober way to convey a political message, Trump by comparison has been less than subdued in underlining his interest in American territorial expansion in Greenland.
In a Truth Social post last month announcing that he would nominate Ken Howery, a diplomat and PayPal co-founder, as his ambassador to Denmark, Trump said: “For the purposes of national security and freedom around the world , the United States of America believes that ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity.”
He re-emphasised his intentions in a post on Monday, in which he said his son, Donald Trump Jr., would soon travel to Greenland. “Greenland is an incredible place,” he said, “and people will benefit enormously if, and when, it becomes part of our nation.”
When the younger Trump arrived in the island’s capital, Nuuk, on Tuesday, along with an entourage that included conservative activist Charlie Kirk, he told reporters waiting for 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. Pressed to comment more directly, perhaps in a way that redrawing a royal coat of arms cannot, the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, addressed the public in a television appearance.
“Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people,” he said. “Our future and the fight for independence are our business.”