NUUK, Greenland –
Last December, Per Berthelsen celebrated a stressful year’s end by taking his wife to a restaurant in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital. The 76-year-old parliamentarian and founder of the island’s governing party is one of Greenland’s most vocal opponents of Donald Trump, and had spent months campaigning against threats by the U.S. president to seize his homeland.
After dinner, as the couple stepped outside for a taxi, a man appeared. It was Jørgen Boassen, the most prominent local face of the MAGA movement, sometimes referred to as Trump’s “Greenlandic Son.” Boassen drew close and shouted that the two men could now fight, Berthelsen recalled in an interview. Just then, the taxi arrived and the Berthelsens left.
Boassen’s behavior sparked fury in Greenland’s governing coalition after Berthelsen mentioned the confrontation on social media. His aggressive behavior, along with tactics adopted by a group of Americans — some associated with Boassen and all with ties to the White House — reveal how efforts to promote Trump’s idea of taking over Greenland appear to be backfiring.