Report: Danish troops were prepared to blow up Greenland runways if U.S. invaded

Gravely alarmed by President Donald Trump’s musings about annexing Greenland “the hard way,” Danish troops were prepared to blow up key runways located in the vast Arctic island.

And the Danes dispatched to Greenland during tense days last January were also stocking up on blood in the event of combat erupting with the United States.

Those Danish military contingencies — seemingly unimaginable between two historic allies — were reported by DR, the Scandinavian nation’s public broadcasting company.

Its reporting was drawn from discussions with “central sources in the Danish government” — along with intelligence sources in Denmark, France and Germany.

Danish soldiers, according to last week’s DR report, arrived in Greenland in January with explosives that could be used to destroy, among other things, runways in the Nuuk and Kangerlussuaq to prevent American military aircraft from landing soldiers on the island.

Also included in their cargo: blood for the battle wounded.

None of the sources cited in the DR report had solid intelligence about American attack plans against Greenland — but many feared it could actually happen.

The Danes were also reportedly lining up allies as tensions escalated in Greenland — an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.

“From France alone, Denmark could expect soldiers equivalent to a small battalion, which means several hundred soldiers,” one official told the DR.

Other European allies, including Germany, also reportedly offered support.

The Jan. 3, 2026, U.S. attack on Venezuela heightened Danish concerns of a possible invasion of Greenland.

“President Donald Trump had not only expressed his intention to use his military superiority, but also demonstrated his willingness to implement it in a country like Venezuela,” the report noted.

The day after the Venezuela operation, Trump, who has said he was “a big fan of Denmark,” was asked by reporters aboard Air Force One about Greenland.

‘We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security — and Denmark is not going to be able to do it, I can tell you,” the president said.

Soon after, according to the DR report, an advance command with Danish, French, German, Norwegian and Swedish soldiers was flown to the Greenland communities of Nuuk and Kangerlussuaq.

Danish fighter planes and a French naval vessel were also reportedly sent towards the North Atlantic.

The DR report was not able to confirm if the European allies would have actually engaged the American troops if they attacked Greenland.

“It’s a question that I’m very glad we didn’t have to answer,” a “top German official” told DR.

The news agency was unable to gather comments in their report from Denmark’s Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Armed Forces, nor the Greenlandic government.

Trump on Greenland: ‘I won’t use force’

The Greenland rhetoric has since cooled.

During the Jan. 21 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Trump ruled out American military action on the massive island.

“We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that,” he said during his speech at the forum.

“That’s probably the biggest statement I made, because people thought I would use force, but I don’t have to use force — I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force,” he said.

The president has also said in January that he and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had “formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland.”

A White House official told Military Times last Friday that such an agreement is “being worked on” and will be “amazing for the U.S.A.”

“Greenland is a strategically important location that is critical from the standpoint of national security, and this deal is very important to advancing U.S. national security,” the official added.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is coordinating with Denmark to expand its security assets on the island. A 1951 agreement between the two nations allows American forces to maintain a military presence in Greenland, added the Military Times report.

“It’s frankly very favorable to our operations or potential operations in Greenland,” Gen. Gregory Guillot, the commander of the U.S. Northern Command, said in a testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee last week.

“We have three areas that we’d like to negotiate with Denmark and Greenland to see if we could expand the defense areas from Pituffik, where we are now, into these other areas, which would help our homeland defense mission.”

Guillot also told lawmakers that he has maintained a strong relationship with the Danish military and is seeking “new and improved” ways to work together.

Utah lawmaker fortifies long-established U.S./Denmark ties

A local congressman has also worked to settle tensions between the U.S. and Denmark over the Greenland issue.

Utah Rep. Blake Moore, who co-chairs the congressional Friends of Denmark Caucus, met with the Danish ambassador to the United States in January to reassure them that there was no real threat of U.S. military action in Greenland.

“To the Danes’ credit, they take our relationship very seriously,” Moore told the Deseret News. “Even though I don’t think they were expecting military intervention, I’m confident that they didn’t think there was anything like that was going to come to it. But they take the relationship seriously … and they just wanted to make sure that we steered away from as much of this as possible.”