1000’s of individuals in Denmark and Greenland gathered over the weekend to protest the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to amass the semi-autonomous Danish territory, some donning a brand new tackle MAGA’s globally recognized “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Roughly 10,000 Danes marched outside Copenhagen City Hall in defiance of the U.S. president’s pursuit of Greenland.
The demonstrations drew diverse crowds, from older residents to young families. Some wore hats modelled on Trump’s red MAGA caps but with “Make America Go Away” written on them. Others flew Greenlandic flags and held signs reading “Hands off Greenland.”
Demonstrators gather to protest against U.S. actions and remarks suggesting control over Greenland in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Jan. 17, 2026.
Zhang Yuliang/Xinhua via ZUMA Press
“We’ve got to support Greenland,” protester Susanne Kristensen said. “We’re Danes, Greenlanders are Danes, regardless that they’re Greenlanders, and we just should stick together.”
“I would like to point out my support to Greenland and in addition show that I don’t just like the president of the US,” 76-year-old Copenhagen resident Lars Hermansen, who wore one among the red caps at a protest Saturday, told the Associated Press.
The mock hats were created by Copenhagen vintage clothing store owner Jesper Rabe Tonnesen. Early batches flopped last 12 months — until the Trump administration recently escalated its rhetoric over Greenland. Now they’re popping up in every single place.
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Trump said Saturday that he would charge a ten per cent import tax starting in February on goods from eight European nations due to their opposition to American control of Greenland, which is a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.
Denmark, alongside the US and lots of other countries, including Canada and the UK, is a member of NATO. Earlier this month, Trump hinted again at taking motion in Greenland, calling it a obligatory move to preserve U.S. national security, an argument he toyed with last 12 months.
Article 5 is one among the core principles of the 76-year-old military alliance and states that “an armed attack against one NATO member shall be considered an attack against all members, and triggers an obligation for every member to return to its assistance.”
The one time the article has ever been invoked has been after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, though the alliance has never handled one member threatening to attack one other.
But Trump is insistent that Greenland must be in U.S. hands.
“If we don’t do it the straightforward way, we’re going to do it the hard way,” he said, having previously expressed his intentions to buy the Arctic island.
Nicole Covey, a fellow on the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, told Global News that, regardless that the post-war alliance has weathered internal conflicts up to now, a military attack could be uncharted territory.
“There is no such thing as a precedent for an actual internal attack,” she said. “In spite of everything, there may be this established norm that allies should not presupposed to attack one another in the event that they want to keep up any form of positive tie.”
European governments are rallying behind Denmark, citing the necessity to defend Arctic regions and warning that threats against Greenland undermine Western security.
The protest in Denmark also got here ahead of the brand new wave of tariffs imposed by Trump on Denmark and its allies.
Demonstrators gather to protest against U.S. actions and remarks suggesting control over Greenland in front of the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Jan. 17, 2026.
(CLiu Zhichao/Xinhua via ZUMA Press
Through the demonstrations, a bipartisan congressional delegation, in search of to point out solidarity with Denmark and Greenland, was within the Danish capital to fulfill with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and other Danish and Greenlandic leaders.
“It makes an enormous difference that Congress members come here and listen,” Kristime Due, who was on the protest in Copenhagen, told NBC News.
FILE – Former President Donald Trump throws autographed hats to the gang in the course of the final round of the Bedminster Invitational LIV Golf tournament in Bedminster, N.J., Sunday, Aug. 13, 2023.
AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File
Foreign affairs spokesman Flemming Møller Mortensen said Friday that individuals in Denmark and Greenland are scared by the escalation and Trump’s apparent willingness to bypass diplomacy.
“We feel frightened,” Mortensen said. “Especially the people living in Greenland, each adults but in addition children and youngsters,” Mortensen said.
— With files from Global News’ Uday Rana and the Associated Press
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.