Donald Trump’s threats and coercion against Greenland have stopped — at least for the moment — but the hurt and fear resulting from years of intimidation by the U.S. president has left a deep impact on the island.
Nivi Rosing, 22, the youngest member of Parliament for the self-governing Danish territory, says she hears the anxiety in people’s voices constantly.
“People are very scared. It’s consuming our everyday life,” she told CBC News during an interview in her parliamentary office in the capital of Nuuk.
Trump started talking about taking over Greenland as early as 2019 during his first term, but his threats and coersion have dramatically escalated in recent months.
The fact that Trump has agreed to let NATO take a significant role in Greenland’s military planning, and to have a working group involving the Danish and Greenlandic governments look at other U.S. concerns has provided little reassurance, according to Rosing.
Because Trump is “so unpredictable,” she says the possibilities of what could happen are hitting the people of Greenland hard.
“Dog owners are vaccinating their dogs so they can leave the country if there’s any sign of an invasion,” said Rosing.
The island’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told a special session of Greenland’s parliament this week that Trump still wants to control Greenland, and said people shouldn’t become complacent.
A dizzying political rise
For Rosing, finding herself near the centre of one of the world’s most intense geopolitical standoffs in recent memory is the latest chapter in what has been a dizzying political rise that began a year ago in Canada.
At the start of 2025, Rosing was a post-secondary student in Ottawa, enrolled in the Inuit Studies program offered by Nunavut Sivuniksavut in partnership with Algonquin College.
Nunavut Sivuniksavut (NS) offers Inuit-focused studies for up to 70 students a year with programs focusing on history, culture and human rights.
A Greenlandic Inuk, Rosing moved to Canada just before the pandemic and completed high school in Victoria before relocating to Ottawa.
She says the teachers, curriculum and fellow students at NS empowered her to try to make a difference in shaping Greenland’s future.
“[The program] was through Inuit eyes and how our ancestors used to govern these lands and our culture and healing — and how to use our culture as a tool for political decisions.”
Global leaders have gathered at the Arctic Frontiers Conference in Tromso, Norway, to discuss security in the North and U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to Greenland’s sovereignty. Gov. Gen. Mary Simon is among the Canadian speakers at the conference.
Rosing says she decided to take time off from school to run for Greenland’s parliament, or Inatsisartut, in the election last March.
“I was thinking, ‘maybe this is a few months’ break and I’ll be back,’ ” she said.
Instead, she won her seat for the Inuit Ataqatigiit party and went on to become part of the governing coalition government led by Nielsen.
Rosing was appointed to the Foreign and Security Policy Committee and has since found herself thrust into existential debates about her island’s future.
High-level diplomacy
In January, she was among a group of Danish and Greenlandic parliamentarians that met with a bipartisan delegation of U.S. lawmakers in Copenhagen.
“We didn’t come with hate,” she said. “We always come with respect and diplomacy.”
Together, Greenland’s political parties issued a joint statement, underscoring that, “We want to be Greenlanders,” not Danes or Americans.
Rosing met with a CBC News team after a marathon special parliamentary session this week about where talks with the United States should go from here.
The Trump administration has said very little about its current objectives, goals or discussions over Greenland.
Leaders from Greenland and Denmark have said repeatedly that the U.S. must respect so-called “red lines,” especially over sovereignty and the island’s right to self determination.
All of Greenland’s political parties want independence, but they are split over how fast the island should move toward it.
Greenland, which has a population of 57,000, has been part of the Kingdom of Denmark for the better part of 300 years. In 1953, its colonial status was officially abolished, and in 2009 was granted an expanded form of self-governance.
Canadian connections
Rosing says she plans to attend the opening of the Canadian consulate in Nuuk this week.
The diplomatic office will be opened by Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand, alongside Canada’s first Indigenous Governor General, Mary Simon, who is Inuk.
Global Affairs has said the consulate’s priorities are to strengthen relations between Canada and Greenland, foster personal ties and mobility, and enhance co-operation on Arctic governance and security.
Rosing says developing more people-to-people connections between Canada and Greenland is essential to help build resilience against future U.S. threats.
“I want closer ties with Canada. If it’s cultural, if it’s business, if it’s education, I think we want to work with Canada. I think the consulate is a good place to start,” she said.
She noted that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is from the North.
“I think he knows and has experienced how important connection is.”
In 2022, Canada and Denmark officially resolved a long-running dispute over the water and land boundary between the two nations that focused on Hans Island, near Greenland’s far north.
As part of the arrangement, Inuit from both Nunavut and Greenland are permitted freedom of movement across the territorial boundary.
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Jeppe Strandsbjerg, an associate professor at the Royal Danish Defence College and the University of Greenland, said Greenlanders are trying to develop their own political ties with countries and a stronger Canadian presence in Nuuk is welcome.
“It’s noted and it’s a big deal,” he said.
But getting from Canada to Greenland is difficult and expensive.
Though Iqaluit and Nuuk are just two hours away by air, direct flights between the two cities have struggled to remain profitable.
Air Greenland, the island’s main air carrier, currently only offers a once a week seasonal service to Baffin Island in the summer.
Rosing would eventually like to return to Ottawa to continue in the Inuit Studies program, but she says Trump may have the final say.
“I think there is still an agenda and [Trump] wants to own and control Greenland — even though maybe it’s not through an invasion,” she said.
“My mandate is for three more years, and I don’t know what’s going to happen.”