In Greenland, anxiety over US ambitions puts normal life on pause

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NUUK, Greenland—As President Trump spoke Wednesday, Rikke Østergaard was anxiously refreshing news coverage at her desk, trying to understand whether the president had categorically ruled out an invasion. “My nerves are in flight or fight….

I try to calm myself down, take it easy, take it easy, but it’s difficult," said Østergaard, a Ph.D. student at the University of Greenland. Trump, who spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, said he wouldn’t deploy the military to take control of Greenland.

But his assurances did little to calm nerves on this icy island, where people have found themselves at the center of a geopolitical struggle in the era of Trumpian power politics. Through it all, many Greenlanders have felt like pawns in a global game that has upended their politics. Before Trump renewed his bid to take over the island, the debate wasn’t if—but when—Greenland would become independent.

Now that process is on hold, as the island tries to ride out the political storm. Østergaard said her doctoral research analyzes the tragic legacy of Danish rule over Greenland, but she has been uneasy that her work might be misconstrued as a justification for Trump’s designs on the island. “It’s as if we cannot go near this conversation now," she said.

“It’s such a dilemma." Late Wednesday, Trump was moving toward an alternative arrangement with North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies, “a deal that everybody is happy with," he told reporters. He said details of the agreement would be announced soon, saying the U.S. would get everything it wanted.

Meanwhile, the island will remain on edge. The political upheaval has put a pause on normal life. In a sign of the