Denmark’s foreign minister has called in the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat in Copenhagen after the nation’s public broadcaster reported that three individuals associated with President Donald Trump were conducting a clandestine influence operation.
Citing government and security sources, the broadcaster, DR, stated that three Americans close to the president had been compiling names of Greenlandic citizens who supported Trump’s proposals to acquire the island, and who might be .
The report indicated that the sources believed the operation’s objective was to “infiltrate Greenlandic society to weaken relations with Denmark from within and make the Greenlanders align with the United States.”
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen confirmed in a statement to the Associated Press that he had summoned Mark Stroh, the U.S. charge d’affaires in Copenhagen, adding that “any attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of the Kingdom [of Denmark] will of course be unacceptable.”
“We are aware that foreign actors continue to show an interest in Greenland and its position within the Kingdom of Denmark. It is therefore not surprising if we encounter outside attempts to influence the future of the Kingdom in the time ahead,” he remarked.
The broadcaster did not release the names of the three Americans alleged to have been carrying out the operation, but characterized one of them as having been “seen publicly with the U.S. president many times” and “recently appointed to a role that could afford him influence over U.S. security policy.”
The other two have “regularly traveled back and forth between Greenland and the United States in recent years,” and have previously been employed under Trump.
The report further noted that the Danish government closely monitored the activities of all three men.
The U.S. currently has no ambassador in Denmark. A charge d’affaires is a diplomat who serves as the chief of mission in the absence of an ambassador.