European diplomats were unsettled by comments from JD Vance, who reportedly remarked that the Vice President “hates us” after a meeting between the Trump administration and officials from Denmark and Greenland.

The discussion brought together Vance and Rubio with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt, ultimately highlighting a “fundamental disagreement” between the groups.

Rasmussen conceded, “We didn’t manage to change the American position,” adding that he hadn’t anticipated doing so.

President Donald Trump has persistently pushed for acquiring Greenland, even suggesting that force might be an option, although Republicans consider this outcome unlikely.

An unnamed European diplomat confided to Politico that Vance acted as Trump’s aggressive envoy, stating, “Vance hates us.”

Denmark, Greenland and the US did agree to form a high-level working group ‘to explore if we can find a common way forward,’ Løkke Rasmussen said. 

He added that he expects the group to hold its first meeting ‘within a matter of weeks.’

Danish and Greenlandic officials didn’t specify who would be part of the group or give other details.

European diplomats were left on edge by JD Vance, saying the vice president ‘hates us’ following a meeting between the Trump administration and representatives of Denmark and Greenland 

The summit between Vance and Rubio with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (pictured right) and his Greenlandic counterpart Vivian Motzfeldt (pictured left) ended with the parties still having a ‘fundamental disagreement 

Løkke Rasmussen said the group should focus on how to address U.S. security concerns while respecting Denmark’s ‘red lines.’ The two countries are NATO allies.

‘Whether that is doable, I don’t know,’ he added, holding out hope that the exercise could ‘take down the temperature.’

He wouldn’t elaborate on what a compromise might look like, and expectations are low. 

As Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen put it Thursday, having the group is better than having no working group and ‘it’s a step in the right direction.’ 

It will at least allow the two sides to talk with each other rather than about each other.

Trump has argued repeatedly that the U.S. needs control of Greenland for its national security. 

He has sought to justify his calls for a US takeover by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals.

Trump’s own Interior Secretary Doug Burgum posted on X a map of America’s ‘new interior’ as a response to the president’s statement, which illustrated new territories ranging from Anchorage, Alaska to Washington, DC to Nuuk, Greenland’s capital. 

President Donald Trump has been insistent on seizing Greenland’ and not ruling out force to take it, even as Republicans see that scenario as least likely 

A bipartisan delegation of Congressional leaders is slated to head to Copenhagen on Thursday to meet with Danish and Greenlandic leaders there.

In the Senate, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Lisa Murkowski have introduced NATO Unity Protection Act, which would prevent any congressional funds from being used to take over the territory of a fellow NATO member, which includes Greenland.

A complementary bill has also been introduced in the US House of Representatives by a bipartisan group of 34 lawmakers headed by Democratic Rep. Bill Keating. Republican Don Bacon is the only original GOP co-sponsor of the bill.

Bacon also threatened on Thursday to lean towards impeaching Trump if he resorted to taking military action against Greenland. 

Danish ambassador Jesper Møller Sørensen and the Head of Greenlandic Representation in the US Jacob Isbosethsen met a dozen lawmakers from both parties in the first week of January.

After a meeting with Republican Senator Roger Wicker, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, Isbosethsen told reporters that ‘Greenland is not for sale.’

Isbosethsen also shared that ‘Greenland is a very proud people, it is a very, very proud country’ that is ‘very proud to contribute to the Western Alliance and to be a NATO ally and partner together with our friends from Denmark and the United States.’

Trump, however seemed insistent on seeing Greenland ‘in the hands if the United States’, adding that anything less than that was ‘unacceptable’ in a post to his Truth Social site Wednesday morning.

A Royal Danish Air Force Lockheed C-130J Super Hercules at Nuuk international airport on January 15, 2026, the day after it arrived transporting Danish military personnel

The White House taunted Greenland on X. The post refers to Trump’s claims that if Washington does not act, ‘China or Russia will’

Greenland’s diplomatic representation in the US posted on X Wednesday  that the ‘last time a poll was done only six percent of Greenlanders/kalaallit were in favour of becoming a part of the US’ citing a survey from January of last year.

Just as the talks were taking place in Washington on Wednesday, the Danish Defense Ministry announced that it was increasing its military presence in Greenland, along with NATO allies. 

France, Germany, Norway and Sweden announced that they were each sending very small numbers of troops in a symbolic but pointed move signaling solidarity with Copenhagen.

The UK said one British officer was part of what it called a reconnaissance group for an Arctic endurance exercise. 

The German Defense Ministry, which dispatched 13 troops, said the aim is to sound out ‘possibilities to ensure security with a view to Russian and Chinese threats in the Arctic.’ It said it was sending them on a joint flight from Denmark as ‘a strong signal of our unity.’

Poulsen said that ‘the Danish Armed Forces, together with a number of Arctic and European allies, will explore in the coming weeks how an increased presence and exercise activity in the Arctic can be implemented in practice,’ he said.

On Thursday, he said the intention was ‘to establish a more permanent military presence with a larger Danish contribution,’ and to invite allies to take part in exercises and training on a rotating basis, according to Danish broadcaster DR. 

While the European troops are largely symbolic at this point, the timing was no accident. 

The deployment ‘serves both to send a political signal and military signal to America, but also indeed to recognize that Arctic security should be reinforced more,’ said Maria Martisiute, an analyst at the European Policy Center in Brussels. 

‘And first and foremost, this should be done through allied effort, not by the US coming and wanting to take it over. So it complicates the situation for the US.’