Denmark’s former representative to Greenland has claimed US President Donald Trump needs permission from a third country if he is to fulfill his pledge to take over the self-governing island.

Tom Høyem, 83, who was Copenhagen’s top envoy to Greenland from 1982 to 1987, told The Sunday Times that he believes the United Kingdom has legal standing to make a claim for the arctic territory before the United States does.

“If Trump tried to buy Greenland, he would have to ask London first,” he said, in an interview with the newspaper. “The United Kingdom demanded in 1917 that if Greenland were to be sold then the UK should have the first right to buy it.”

Høyem claimed the agreement came about when Woodrow Wilson, the US president from 1913 to 1921, tried to buy Greenland that year as part of a package deal with what are now the US Virgin Islands.

Denmark refused, he said, and conditioned the sale of what was then known as the Danish West Indies on the United States signing a letter stating Greenland “is and will forever be Danish,” he told the Sunday Times.

“I have seen the original document myself in a museum,” Høyem added. “This means the United States has legally accepted Greenland is and will always be Danish. But Trump, it seems, has never heard that.”

He went on to say he believes the UK’s claim under the 1917 terms came about because Canada was then a British dominion which has long shared a maritime border with Greenland.

Canada lies a few miles from Greenland across the Nares strait and, since 2022, shares a land border on the tiny Hans Island. Canada gained legal autonomy in 1931 and removed all remaining British authority in 1982 with the patriation of its own constitution.

It is unclear if Britain would even bother making any claim to Greenland, or if Høyem’s interpretation of the document could withstand legal scrutiny.

Trump, who has floated the idea of acquiring Greenland through the use of America’s economic and military might, held a “fiery call” with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen earlier this month, the Financial Times reported Friday.

The FT, citing senior European officials, said Trump was “aggressive and confrontational” in blustering about his plans to take control of the Danish territory. Trump has said publicly that he covets the mineral-rich territory for national security reasons.

Frederiksen was said to have reminded Trump of her own publicly stated position on the call, which is that Greenland is not for sale.

Greenlandic officials, including the territory’s Prime Minister Múte Egede, have also said they have no intention of joining the United States. Egede favors Greenland becoming a fully sovereign country and has suggested an independent Greenland would entertain closer relations with the United States, as well as maintaining its ties with Europe.

With the international spotlight on Greenland, Múte Egede, the island’s prime minister, used his New Year’s address to call for complete independence from Denmark: he declared it was “now time to take the next step for our country” to remove the “shackles of the colonial era and move on”.

“It is now time to take the next step for our country,” Egede said in a New Year’s address. “Like other countries in the world, we must work to remove the obstacles to cooperation — which we can describe as the shackles of the colonial era — and move on,”

Egede has said he believes an independence referendum could be held as earl as April, to coincide with Greenland’s legislative elections.

Høyem told the Sunday Times that the Greenlandic people ought to remain in Denmark, which provides roughly €500 million in subsidies per year. Greenland, on the other, hand, has largely untapped mineral wealth that could be used to support its economic development.

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Trump says he believes US will 'get Greenland'

The US president was asked about the island in the Air Force One press room.

President Donald Trump has said he believes the US will gain control of Greenland, after showing renewed interest in acquiring the autonomous Danish territory in recent weeks.

"I think we're going to have it," he told reporters on Air Force One on Saturday, adding that the island's 57,000 residents "want to be with us".

His comments come after reports that Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen insisted Greenland was not for sale in a fiery phone call with the president last week.

Trump floated the prospect of buying the vast Arctic territory during his first term in 2019, and has said US control of Greenland is an "absolute necessity" for international security.

"I think the people want to be with us," Trump said when asked about the island in the press room on board the presidential plane.

"I don't really know what claim Denmark has to it, but it would be a very unfriendly act if they didn't allow that to happen because it's for the protection of the free world," he added.

"I think Greenland we'll get because it has to do with freedom of the world," Trump continued.

"It has nothing to do with the United States other than that we're the one that can provide the freedom. They can't."

Despite Trump's apparent confidence, the prime ministers of Greenland and Denmark have both previously said the island was not for sale.

Greenland's PM Mute Egede said use of the territory's land was "Greenland's business", though he did express a willingness to work more closely with the US on defence and mining.

Meanwhile, Danish premiere Frederiksen said earlier this month that "Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders", and only the local population could determine its future.

Frederiksen reasserted her position in a heated 45-minute phone exchange with Trump last week, according to a report in the Financial Times.

The newspaper quoted an anonymous European official as saying the conversation was "horrendous", and another saying Trump's interest in acquiring Greenland was is "serious, and potentially very dangerous".

The Danish prime minister reportedly insisted the island was not for sale, but noted the US's "big interest" in it.

Greenland lies on the shortest route from North America to Europe, making it strategically important for the US. It is also home to a large American space facility.

In recent years, there has been increased interest in Greenland's natural resources, including mining for rare earth minerals, uranium and iron.

Though the island has wide-ranging autonomy, it remains part of the kingdom of Demark.

But there is a general consensus in Greenland that it will eventually become independent, which could pave the way for a new kind of relationship with the US.

President Trump's claim that the people of Greenland "want to be with us" may come as a surprise to some of the island's residents.

A fishing boat captain in the Kapisillit settlement told the BBC Trump was "welcome to visit" the island, but that "Greenland belongs to Greenlanders".

And local church elder Kaaleeraq Ringsted said Trump's language was "not acceptable", adding "Greenland is not for sale".

There are several ways Trump could pursue his desire to take over the territory. Asked earlier in January whether he could rule out using military or economic force, Trump said he could not.

His recent comments have sent shockwaves through the Danish political establishment, sparking hastily organised high-level meetings in Copenhagen earlier this month.

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