King Frederik X of Denmark tweaked his country’s royal coat of arms to enlarge symbols of Greenland and the Faroe Islands in December amid President-elect Donald Trump’s overtures to acquire the Danish territory.
The king revised the coat of arms, which for 500 years featured three crowns representing an historic union between Denmark, Sweden and Norway, to remove the crowns entirely, according to a statement from Denmark’s Royal House. The new design enlarges two symbols — a ram for the Faroe Islands and a polar bear for Greenland — to occupy their own quadrants.
The design update follows Frederik X’s insistence during a New Year’s Day address that Denmark, Greenland and other Commonwealth nations “belong together,” seeming to signal anxiety over the president-elect’s increasing calls for annexation of the territory.
Following his November election victory, Trump ramped up his effort to purchase Greenland “for the purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World,” calling the acquisition “an absolute necessity” in a Truth Social post on Dec. 22.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen reiterated Tuesday that “Greenland is not for sale and will not be in the future” in an interview with TV 2, a Danish state-funded outlet. Greenlandic Prime Minister Mute Egede echoed these comments Tuesday, insisting that “Greenland is ours,” and that the territory cannot “lose [its] long struggle for freedom,” according to Reuters.
Trump refused to rule out the use of military or economic coercion in the acquisition of Greenland and the Panama Canal during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago residence Tuesday.
Trump, who initially tried to purchase the arctic island in 2019, revived the effort after his November election victory. The president-elect promised to “MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN” Tuesday as his firstborn son, Donald Trump Jr., landed in the territory in an apparent escalation of the effort.
The president-elect has also eyed other regions as prospects for U.S. territorial expansion, including Canada and the Panama Canal.
The Danish prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Featured Image Credit: 1st Lt. Danielle Rose
