A Greenlander interviewed by The New York Times said he opposes the U.S. gaining control of the world’s largest island because he is “afraid” it would upend his ability to hunt whales and seals.
President Donald Trump wrote in a Wednesday post to Truth Social that the U.S. “needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security” and that if the country does not acquire the island, which is currently an autonomous territory of Denmark, “RUSSIA OR CHINA WILL, AND THAT IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!”
The same day, the New York Times published a story detailing interviews with several Greenlanders opposed to the U.S. taking over their homeland. One man told the outlet that he opposes Danish control because Americans think marine mammals are “cute.”
“I hunt whales and seals. In the United States they think whales and seals are cute and shouldn’t be hunted. That’s what I’m afraid of,” said Kunuk Abelsen, a resident of Kulusuk—a remote Greenlandic settlement with a population of just 241—to the NYT.
A website devoted to Greenland tourism describes Kulusuk as “a traditional Greenlandic settlement with hunting and fishing in its heart and tourism in its embrace.”
The Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), signed into law by former President Richard Nixon in 1972, prohibits the unpermitted hunting, harassment, capture, or killing of whales, seals, and other marine mammals in U.S. waters and by U.S. citizens on the high seas.
While commercial whaling is banned in both the U.S. and Denmark, both countries still allow “aboriginal subsistence hunts” of marine mammals by native populations in Greenland and Alaska, as well as a part of Washington state respectively. Currently, the only three countries that allow commercial whaling are Japan, Norway, and Iceland.
Another Greenlander interviewed by the NYT said she has “never heard anyone talk like that about another country before,” referring to Trump’s expressed desire to take control of the Danish territory.
Despite being three times the size of Texas, Greenland only has a population of about 56,000 people, giving it a population density of around 0.07 people per square mile. By comparison, if the island of Manhattan had the same population density as the Arctic territory, it would not even be home to two people.
About 80% of Greenland’s area is covered by the massive Greenland Ice Sheet.
“President Trump has made it well known that acquiring Greenland is a national security priority of the United States, and it’s vital to deter our adversaries in the Arctic region,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to The Hill earlier in January.
A statement from Trump’s White House at the time said “the president and his team are discussing a range of options to” pursue their goal to obtain the Arctic island, “and of course, utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the commander-in-chief’s disposal.”
Democratic Senator John Fetterman expressed openness to the U.S. acquisition of Greenland through peaceful means, stating that while he opposes a military invasion of the island, “Ideally we could purchase it. And that’s not scandalous either.”
“That’s been an idea in our history for a while. Ideally, we could purchase it,” Fetterman said.
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https://dailycaller.com/2026/01/15/greenland-trump-takeover-whales-seals/
