Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry records a social media video in front of the White House, March 24, 2025. MARK SCHIEFELBEIN / AP
The timing could hardly be a coincidence. Exactly one year earlier, on December 22, 2024, Donald Trump – elected president of the US but not yet inaugurated – posted a message on his Truth Social platform that deeply unsettled Denmark. Announcing the appointment of Ken Howery, the PayPal co-founder and former diplomat in Stockholm, as the new head of the US embassy in Copenhagen, Trump wrote: "For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity."
Since then, the US president has repeatedly reaffirmed his desire to take over the autonomous Danish territory of 56,000 people, not ruling out the use of force. Supported by their European allies, the governments in Nuuk and Copenhagen raised their voices, demanding "respect" from a country they have considered their "closest ally." Evidently, this had little effect.
On Monday, December 22, exactly one year after Trump's first message, Danes and Greenlanders woke up to find that the US president, just hours earlier, had appointed a "United States special envoy to Greenland." Even more concerning: On X, the new appointee, Jeff Landry, governor of Louisiana, explained that he would take on the new role – a "volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the US."
