Denmark lost 52 soldiers who fight with the United States. Now feels threatened by Trump

His whole life of his elderly Colonel Soren Knudsen stepped forward when his country called. And when his allies did it.

He was fighting with US troops, in particular in Afghanistan, and for some time he was the oldest officer in Denmark there. He counted 58 rocket attacks during his debt.

“I was awarded a medal for a bronze star from the United States and they gave me the stars and stripes. They have been hanging on my wall in our house since then and proudly showed them to everyone.”

Then something changed.

“After JD Vance's statement about Greenland, the president's disrespect for internationally recognized borders, I took those that stars and stripes and the medal was delayed,” Soren says, his voice falling apart.

This week before the congress, the US President doubled his desire to seize the largest island in the world: Greenland, autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.

“My first feeling was that it hurts, and the second is that I am offended,” complains Kohl Knudsen.

I meet him in the first weeks of his retirement outside the royal residence of Denmark of the 18th century, the Amalienborg Palace in the heart of Copenhagen.

The cuttings were hit and the soldiers flow from.

Today's security change comes at a time when the Trump administration has not just pinched it, but has refused most assumptions about US-European security, which have been kept quickly for 80 years.

“These are values ​​and when these values ​​were applied by what we thought was an ally, it becomes very difficult to watch.” Sorrene says with her American wife Gina next to him.

“Denmark freely and undoubtedly joined the effort where my husband serves,” she says.

“So there is a shock to hear threats from a country that I also love and feel that the Union is trampling. It feels personal, not like some abstract tactic of foreign policy.”

Soren, however, did not give up any hope.

“My hope and my prayer one day I will be able to put (the flag) back on the wall,” he confided.

There is no signing of his prayers will soon be answered.

Greenland, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, goes to the ballot boxes next week, with all major parties supporting independence at some point in the future.

Raising by Donald Trump – potentially by force – is not on the newsletter.

Not far from the Royal Palace is a memorial of Denmark of his soldiers, lost in the recent battle.

The walls carved on the stone -covered walls are the names of the killed with their Western allies.

The section, in honor of the fallen in the American invasion of Afghanistan, is particularly significant.

Denmark lost 44 soldiers in Afghanistan, which as part of less than six million population was more than any ally other than the United States. Eight Danish soldiers were killed in Iraq.

That is why the president's words are so stinked.

A person very well set to consider what Trump's ambitions actually amounted to Greenland is Anders Fog Rasmussen.

“President Trump's declaration of the intention of taking Greenland is very similar to President Putin's rhetoric when it comes to Ukraine,” he told the BBC.

Former Denmark Prime Minister and former NATO Alliance Secretary General claims that this is Denmark's moment and the rest of Europe must be activated to protect himself better if the US is not inclined.

“I admired the United States from my childhood and their role as the world police officer. And I think we need a police officer to guarantee international law and order, but if the United States does not want to fulfill this role, then Europe must be able to defend itself to stand on its own feet.”

However, Fogh Rasmussen does not believe that the policeman is about to turn a criminal.

“I would like to emphasize that at the end of the day I don't think Americans will take Greenland with force.”

President Trump first spoke about the absorption of Greenland in his first term before returning to the topic earlier this year.

But now, after blinding alleged allies with their latest moves of Ukraine, Tariffs, and the Middle East, Denmark urgently tries to evaluate the real threat.

For many younger Danes, control on Greenland is clearly wrong – an unattainable colonial hangover.

This does not mean that instead they want to convey directly over the US.

“We have ties with Greenland,” says the music student Molly. “Denmark and Greenland are quite separated, I would say, but I still have friends from there, so it affects me quite personally.”

“I find it really scary,” says 18-year-old music student Lucas.

“Everything he sees, he goes on afterwards. And something with oil and money, he is not interested in climate, is not interested in anyone or nothing.”

His girlfriend Clara Chips in the fact that Trump is already so powerful that he can “affect their daily lives” by thousands of kilometers, what is an era of unprecedented danger.

In the light of stopping President Trump's military assistance to Ukraine and his deep reluctance to fund Europe's security, Denmark is the basis of an effort to increase defense costs across the continent.

The country has just announced that it will allocate more than 3% of its GDP for defense costs in 2025 and 2026 to protect against future aggression from Russia or elsewhere.

Meanwhile, security analyst Hans Tino Hansen is standing in front of a huge screen in what he calls his “OPS room” at his headquarters in Copenhagen.

“This card is where we update our threat daily, based on signals and incidents around the world,” says Hans, who has been conducting risky intelligence over the last 25 years.

As part of the increased cost of defense in Denmark, it strengthens its power to the High North by an additional two billion euros, announced in January and three new Arctic naval ships and investments in long -distance drones.

Hans believes that Arctic security can be tightened further, not from American ingestion – but with new deals that restore us.

“If you conclude more agreements, both with regard to defense and on security, but both economic and raw materials, then we return more or less to where we were in the 50s and 60s.”

But history extends back from the mid-20th century.

“If you look at this world, Greenland is the most central place on Earth,” says world-renowned geologist Prof. Minic Rosing, gesturing in his office with wooden panels.

The tranquility of his room reflects the temperament of a man who grew up in a village of only “seven or eight people” in the Nuuk fjord on the island.

But a key reason why his homeland is now increasingly used by outsiders are the rich mineral deposits under Arctic ice.

We saw the natural resources of Ukraine caught the eye of President Trump in almost the same way.

“All these minerals that speak as rare metals, rare earth elements – they are not really uncommon. The rare thing is to use them,” he reasoned.

Prof. Rosing says that the vastness of Greenland and the lack of infrastructure are only two elements, which may not be the cashier they hope that some Americans are hoping.

“They are a small part of the mining industry and their extraction economy is very uncertain, while the investment to start extraction is very high. The risk of investment is too high with the potential profit.”

The current Greenland government says there will be a vote for independence after the election next week.

Although certainly involuntary, President Trump's designs on the island have followed a light on desire, found among the Inuit, finally to be released from 300 years of Danish control.

But Prof. Rosing believes, despite all the latent wealth of minerals, his colleagues Greenland are in no hurry to give up the annual grant of the equivalent block of 480 million pounds (570 million euros), which he receives from Copenhagen.

This reads more than half of the island's public budget easily.

“People talk about health services, schools, the next outboard engine they want on their boat and what the price of gas is and all those things that do normal people,” he says.

“It's not like standing up with a big knife, removing it in the air and shouting independence, independence.”

With regard to Trump's obvious obsession with Greenland's adoption, Fogh Rasmussen fears an alarming conclusion can be drawn.

The one who would do the Danes who cannot do business with a person whose point of view of territorial integrity is so wildly incompatible with theirs.

“I understand the American strategic interest in minerals very well, but when it comes to extraction in Greenland, they are not interested,” he says.

“It leaves me the worry that it may not be a security, it may not be minerals, it may be just a matter of expanding the territory of the United States.

“And this is actually a time when we are unable to accommodate President Trump.”

Additional reporting by Costas Calergis