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Denmark’s Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, urged US President Donald Trump and his supporters to halt any aggressive moves regarding Greenland, amid escalating tensions between the NATO allies following US actions in Venezuela.

On Sunday, Trump asserted, “we do need Greenland,” while the spouse of a key ally shared a map on the social media platform X, depicting Greenland with an American flag overlay and captioned with just the word “soon.”

Frederiksen, during an interview with The Atlantic on Sunday evening, firmly pushed back against Trump’s remarks concerning the expansive Arctic island.

She stated, “I must candidly tell the United States that discussing the necessity for America to acquire Greenland is utterly nonsensical. Hence, I strongly advise the US to cease making threats against a long-standing ally.”

Her statement followed criticism from Greenland’s Prime Minister, Jens Frederik Nielsen, who labeled the map shared by Katie Miller—wife of Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff and prominent adviser—as “disrespectful.”

Nielsen said the US rhetoric was “entirely unacceptable” and added: “Enough is enough. No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of annexation.”

Trump’s military intervention in Venezuela has been portrayed by him and senior US officials as part of a concept of “hemispheric defence” in which America calls the shots throughout the Americas.

US officials have also included Greenland — geographically part of North America but territorially part of Denmark and Nato — in that concept.

Trump has insisted for the past year that the US would take control of Greenland and has accused Denmark of neglecting its territory and Arctic security.

But Frederiksen said on Sunday evening the US had “no right to annex one of the three countries” in the kingdom of Denmark, which also includes the Faroe Islands.

She added the kingdom “and thus Greenland is part of Nato and is therefore covered by the alliance’s security guarantee”.

The Danish prime minister also pointed out the US has a defence agreement with Copenhagen that gives it the right to have a military base on Greenland.

The US has in recent decades significantly scaled back its presence on Greenland, from more than 10,000 soldiers to less than 200 currently.

But Trump and his vice-president JD Vance have claimed Denmark has failed to look after Greenland’s security, even as Copenhagen has in recent months pledged to spend more than $4bn on boosting it.

Jesper Møller Sørensen, Denmark’s ambassador to the US, responded to Miller’s social media post by saying: “We expect full respect for the territorial integrity of the kingdom of Denmark.”