Greenlanders personal a number of weapons: greater than 35,000 lengthy rifles, on an island of 56,000 individuals. Everybody I met there in January knew learn how to hunt. And multiple particular person made clear to me that they had been prepared to face their floor in opposition to a potential American invasion.
“I’ve 10 looking rifles,” Finn informed me once I visited his residence in Nuuk. (He requested me to withhold his full identify as a result of “taking credit score for issues will not be the Greenland manner.”) “I’m an honest shot,” he added, “however not so good as my pals, who can hit a seal within the water at 200 meters, from a shifting boat.”
Nuuk, a metropolis of not more than 20,000 individuals, is serviced by considered one of only a few runways in a wilderness greater than 3 times the scale of Texas. Finn was born there, to a Danish father and an Inuit mom. “You have to know,” he informed me—after we’d sat for an hour or so over tea and salted musk ox, and he had come to belief that I used to be not one of many “different” Individuals—“that I’ll defend my residence.”
The “different” Individuals had additionally been to go to. In early 2025, right-wing influencers roamed downtown Nuuk, handing out $100 payments to kids and telling them to pose for cameras whereas sporting free MAGA swag. I, too, encountered a bunch of youngsters—on a climb up the tallest hill (in Ohio we might name it a mountain) overlooking the capital. 4 youngsters scampered previous. “We don’t like Trump!” they mentioned on listening to my accent.
Wanting down on the airfield under, I used to be struck by the forbidding topography. Steep, snow-covered mountains flanked the icy fjords. The phrase that got here to thoughts was desolate. Jacob Kaarsbo, considered one of my climbing companions, was a former Danish intelligence officer and an professional on Greenland’s protection.
“There are solely a handful of runways that we now have to defend,” he informed me. “And within the north,” he added, “there are villages the place the subsequent dwelling soul is 1,000 miles away.” Danish particular forces preserve a presence in these wild expanses. Monthslong expeditions generally known as Sirius Patrol depend on sled-dog groups, and serve to remind any interloper that Greenland will not be for the taking.
President Trump just lately mocked the sled-dog groups. However within the frozen North, the one automobiles that may function reliably are sleds pulled by canines. Folks have tried utilizing machines, however the chilly turns oil to sludge, and when machines fall via ice, they’ll’t be pulled out. If a sled breaks via, it floats lengthy sufficient to be recovered. If canines and males fall via, they pull themselves out, drag their sleds onto thicker ice, and keep on.
Two hours north of the capital sits a fishing village accessible solely by boat. We left Nuuk’s port earlier than dawn, and as soon as we had been within the fjord, we navigated previous slabs of ice till we reached the settlement. Most of Greenland’s inhabitants reside in cities like this: a one-room schoolhouse, a chapel, a lone medic geared up to deal with solely minor accidents. Anybody with a severe well being challenge needs to be evacuated to Nuuk by boat. As we approached the dock, a small looking social gathering was doing away with.
The village could also be one of the remoted on the planet. However even there, individuals requested me: “What does America need?” By their reckoning, Greenlanders already supplied every thing the USA may need. “Is it true,” one of many villagers requested, “that your president has a ‘psychological want’ to personal us?” Some within the village needed to consider that Trump had by no means mentioned this, that the studies had been pretend.
All through the settlement, I observed animal carcasses nailed to the edges of houses. Most had been small recreation—birds and hares—however I additionally noticed a quartered reindeer. This was the native technique of refrigeration, and the villagers survived on subsistence looking. I discovered myself desirous about the gun tradition again residence—performative, primarily based on a delusion of self-sufficiency. On this Greenlandic village, gun possession was rooted within the necessities of an unforgiving setting. Strolling again to the boat, I noticed a blood path that led up from the dock. The looking social gathering had been profitable.
Trump’s posture towards Greenland has had a really actual influence on the individuals who reside there. Three nights earlier than my go to, the ability failed in Nuuk. One lady I spoke with was satisfied that the Individuals had been coming. A lot of her pals thought the identical. “Venezuela,” she mentioned. “The very first thing the Individuals did was lower the ability.” The following morning, calls to the mental-health disaster line in Nuuk spiked.
A part of me puzzled whether or not this was an overreaction. Then Orla Joelsen, a neighborhood information, confirmed me a constructing that sat largely empty within the middle of city.
“It’s ready,” Joelsen mentioned, “for the Individuals.”
The U.S. authorities has lengthy maintained a minimal presence in Nuuk: one everlasting consular consultant and a handful of different workers. That has been greater than sufficient for so long as anybody can bear in mind. Now the U.S. has leased this new constructing, which it has but to occupy, and which covers tens of 1000’s of sq. ft, with sufficient workplace area for greater than 100 individuals. To the locals, the ability looms because the doubtless headquarters for a coming occupation.
The Greenlanders I met won’t submit simply. They appeared able to battle, and greater than succesful. Greenlandic and Danish authorities had been additionally making ready. Warships from Denmark arrived on the harbor throughout my go to. My information informed me that till just lately, he had by no means seen guards on the port, the place closely armed Danish troopers now checked automobiles coming into and leaving. “It isn’t due to the Russians,” Joelsen mentioned. “It’s due to the Individuals.”
In late January, the Greenlandic authorities posted an alert advising all residents to arrange to “fend for your self for 5 days if a disaster arises.” The discover included suggestions on stockpiling drugs, batteries, and gasoline, in addition to tips about surviving with out energy or water. Comparable circulars have been issued earlier than, in anticipation of main storms and different pure occasions. However this one included one thing new: “Contemplate entry to looking weapons.” That was a name to arms.
“The extra individuals who can fend for themselves and assist others, the stronger we stand as a society,” the alert added. “Do what you’ll be able to and assist these round you. Fortuitously, we’re good at that.”
In Nuuk, shops had been working low on ammunition, not as a result of individuals had been afraid of each other, nor as a result of they wanted that a lot ammo to hunt. “The bullets are for the Individuals,” one native informed me, “if they arrive.” He assured me that the federal government was working to replenish the depleted ammunition provide.
The Greenlanders I met had been heat and welcoming, however not with out a fierce satisfaction. Their ancestors had carved a civilization out of the ice with instruments comprised of whalebone and meteorite fragments. They’d hewn clothes from cured whale gut, sealskin, and thick polar-bear fur—nonetheless the warmest insulation on Earth. At present’s Greenlanders are ready to defend what they’ve constructed right here.
“If we’re pushed,” Finn informed me, “we’re able to die.”
That’s a battle America has no purpose to select. It’s additionally one which America may lose.
