Over the last month, President-elect Donald J. Trump has repeatedly discussed his desire for the United States to purchase Greenland, and during a long news conference on Tuesday he refused to rule out using military force to accomplish that goal.
In a far more subtle act of geopolitics that came ahead of Mr. 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 than the kingdom’s national coat of arms — had previously featured a panel with three crowns that represent the Kalmar Union between Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Those crowns have now been removed, with separate panels being dedicated to Greenland (represented by a polar bear) and the Faroe Islands (represented by a ram). In the previous royal coat of arms, Greenland’s polar bear was in the same lower left panel, but was far smaller.
A statement from The Royal House of Denmark said of the new design that “the Faroe Islands and Greenland have each gotten their own field, which strengthens the Realm’s prominence 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 received a public showing last week when it was featured on a flag raised at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen for the royal family’s New Year’s 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 design alteration’s understated nature didn’t make it less of a statement.
“It is important to signal from the Danish side that Greenland and the Faroe Islands are part of the Danish realm, and that this is not up for discussion,” he said. “This is how you mark it.”
If tweaking a heraldic design seems like a restrained way to convey a political message, Mr. Trump in comparison has been anything but subdued in stressing his interest in American territorial expansion into Greenland.
In a Truth Social post last month, in which he announced that he was appointing Ken Howery, the diplomat and a co-founder of PayPal, as his choice for ambassador to Denmark, Mr. Trump said: “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.”
He stressed his intent again in a post on Monday, in which he said that his son, Donald Trump Jr., would soon be traveling to Greenland. “Greenland is an incredible place,” he said, “and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our Nation.”
When the younger Mr. Trump arrived in the island’s capital of Nuuk on Tuesday, along with an entourage that included the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, he told reporters awaiting 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. Spurred to comment more directly, perhaps in a way that redesigning a royal coat of arms can’t, Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, addressed the public in a television appearance.
“Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland,” she said. “Our future and fight for independence is our business.”
