Donald Trump’s continued threats to annex Greenland left the self-governing territory's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vivian Motzfeldt, choked up during an interview following her unsuccessful meeting at the White House.
In an interview with KNR, translated from Danish, Motzfeldt spoke about the meeting and admitted that the "last few days have been tough" for her and Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen.
Placing her hand on her chest during the interview, of which a clip can be seen below, she appeared to fight back tears as she described the "increasing pressure" that Greenlanders have felt.
"We are doing our utmost," she said. "I am getting very emotional. I am overwhelmed."
Trump has repeatedly threatened to annex the self-governing territory, which is controlled by Denmark, and Motzfeldt sat down for a talk with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday (January 14). In a press conference after the meeting, Rasmussen and Motzfeldt said they were unable to get the Trump administration to back down.
"We didn’t manage to change the American position," said Rasmussen, per Politico. "It’s clear that the president has this wish of conquering over Greenland. We made it very, very clear that this is not in the interest of the Kingdom. … It is, of course, very emotional for all of us."
Trump also addressed the situation while signing executive orders at the White House on Wednesday. "If we don’t go in, Russia’s going to go in, and China’s going to go in," he said, while also declining to say whether military force is on the cards. "There’s not a thing that Denmark can do about it if Russia or China wants to occupy Greenland. But there’s everything we can do, we found that out last week with Venezuela. I can’t rely on Denmark being able to fend themselves off."
There is no evidence to suggest that either Russia or China is interested in annexing Greenland. In fact, per Reuters, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that neither country has announced any plans to threaten Greenland’s sovereignty. "There are no facts indicating the aggressive plans of Russia and China, nor can there be any," Zakharova said.
As the situation has dragged on, Trump said on Friday (January 16) that he "may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland," BBC News reported.