The Greenland Plot: It Sounds Like a Bad Movie

I warned this wasn’t a joke. Now Trump’s loyalists are targeting Denmark with covert ops.

It sounds like the plot of a bad Hollywood movie: a U.S. president secretly dispatches his loyalists to a sparsely populated Arctic island, stirring up secessionist movements to weaken an ally and grab the land for himself. Except this isn’t Netflix, it’s the Trump administration in 2025, and the ally being betrayed is Denmark.

When Denmark summoned the top U.S. diplomat this week, it wasn’t over tariffs, trade, or a diplomatic misunderstanding. It was because three people tied to Donald Trump were reportedly running covert influence operations in Greenland, compiling lists of locals sympathetic to Trump’s push for secession and destabilizing Denmark from within.

Think about that: a sitting U.S. president effectively encouraging a secessionist movement inside an allied democracy. If Russia or China tried to stir up a secessionist movement in Puerto Rico, we’d call it an act of aggression. If they did it in Texas, we’d call it war. When Trump does it to Denmark, the State Department shrugs and says, “We have no comment on the actions of private U.S. citizens.”

Oh really? Has anyone met

Lev Parnas

, former Trump loyalist who ran back-channel foreign influence ops in Ukraine? Perhaps now would be the perfect time to screen “From Russia with Lev.” (Lev, we need to chat…)

This isn’t private freelancing. These are Trump’s loyalists. And this isn’t just bad optics. It’s a betrayal.

Denmark is one of America’s oldest allies and a founding member of NATO. They’re a country that has stood with us in Afghanistan, Iraq, and across countless security missions. They’ve welcomed U.S. bases on Greenlandic soil because they trusted us as partners, not occupiers. Now, under Trump, we’re behaving like the very authoritarian regimes we claim to resist. Strong-arming. Interfering with and exploiting resource dependencies, and attempting to fracture an ally's sovereignty.

If you’re sitting in Berlin or Paris, Europe’s anchor powers, or in Ottawa, America’s closest neighbor, or in NATO’s frontline capitals like Vilnius, Riga, or Warsaw, you’re watching this and wondering: Are we next?

And Denmark’s alarm didn’t start this week. Back in May, The Wall Street Journal reported (gifted article via link) that Trump’s Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, ordered U.S. spies to step up intelligence gathering on Greenland’s independence movement. At the time, Danish officials were troubled not just by the directive itself but by the Trump administration’s silence when pressed for a denial. That silence looks even more ominous now. 

The Greenland revelations also follow another flashpoint. Just days ago, the U.S. ordered a halt on Orsted’s nearly finished $1.5 billion Revolution Wind project off Rhode Island and Connecticut, citing vague national security concerns, a move that triggered a sharp drop in the company’s stock and heightened tensions with Copenhagen. Revolution Wind wasn’t some abstract climate project; it was set to be Rhode Island and Connecticut’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm, powering more than 350,000 homes. Trump has always hated windmills. But when that personal grudge becomes U.S. policy, halting a project run by Orsted, Denmark’s largest energy company and a global leader in offshore wind, it’s no longer a joke about golf courses. It’s a weapon, and it carries geopolitical consequences.

I Warned This Wasn’t a Joke

Back in April, I wrote that Trump’s so-called “land grab jokes” about Greenland and other countries should be taken seriously (From Canada to Gaza: The Next Land Grab). I said then:

“Trump's statements are not just empty words. They create a permission structure for like-minded figures in his orbit to consider radical policy shifts. These wild ideas can creep into actual government action in an administration devoid of guardrails.”

Here we are. It’s no longer a joke. It’s covert influence operations, diplomatic escalations, and the erosion of trust inside NATO.

Why It Matters

• Strategic Stakes: Greenland isn’t just ice. 25 of the 34 critical raw materials deemed essential by the European Commission are present in Greenland, including rare earth elements, lithium, and graphite. These are the minerals that power everything from smartphones to missile systems, and they’re central to Trump’s push to secure Greenland for U.S. manufacturing. Sitting alongside those deposits is Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule Air Base), a linchpin of America’s missile defense network and Arctic surveillance. Whoever controls Greenland controls both the Arctic’s resources and its security gateway.

• NATO Unity: Undermining Denmark’s sovereignty fractures NATO from within. That’s a gift to Putin and Xi, who thrive on Western division.

• The Authoritarian Playbook: Plausible deniability, using “private citizens” as cutouts, stirring separatist movements, this isn’t American diplomacy. It’s Russian-style hybrid warfare.

Who are we on the world stage right now? America was once the anchor of the free world. The country others looked to for stability and partnership. Today, under Trump, we appear to be the destabilizer, treating allies as marks in a real estate hustle.

If Trump will do this to Denmark, what makes you think he won’t do it to Canada, Mexico, or even U.S. states he sees as disloyal?

Allies are already recalibrating. French President Emmanuel Macron made a rare visit to Greenland earlier this year, one of the few high-profile trips by a foreign head of state in recent memory, to explicitly signal solidarity with Denmark and push back against Trump's ambitions. When France feels compelled to send a head of state to Nuuk, it’s a clear sign that America’s behavior is shaking the very foundations of NATO trust.

This is what happens when we fail to take Trump’s “jokes” seriously. The consequences are global, and the betrayal is ours.

Until next time,

Olivia