Pipaluk Lynge knows the history of how Indigenous people have been treated in the United States. And she’s well aware of the holes in the country’s health care system and its yawning economic inequality. Ms. Lynge, one of Greenland’s top officials and the leader of the Parliament’s foreign and security policy committee, chafes at President Trump’s offer to buy Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark, and his insistence that Greenlanders would be better off as Americans.

“We’re not going to sell our soul,” she said. “We’re not stupid.”

As President Trump seems to toy with Greenland’s fate, a kaleidoscope of feelings swirl in Greenland itself. People are shocked, angry, confused, humiliated, insulted and, most of all, scared... On Wednesday, Greenland’s foreign minister is set to take part in a high-powered meeting in Washington, the first time this island has ever been directly involved in something of this magnitude. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance are holding talks with Greenlandic and Danish officials in the shadow of escalating threats from Mr. Trump, who recently vowed to “do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not.”

Interviews in the past few days with Greenlanders from different parts of the territory and different walks of life reveal that people on the island don’t want to be recolonized by a new outside power, and that only a small minority has even the faintest flicker of interest in joining the United States. They like their Scandinavian welfare system, with its free health care, free education and strong safety net. They feel connected to Denmark even if there are still raw feelings about earlier eras of colonialism and abuse. And they certainly don’t want to be bought by anyone, but acknowledge that economically they can’t stand on their own two feet. “It’s not the time to be independent,” said Nielsine Lange, a special-education teacher in Ilulissat, a town on the west coast. “It would be too dangerous, and people wouldn’t be responsible enough. We need to pull ourselves together first — independence is a goal, but there’s a long way to go.”

… Instead of trying to win hearts and minds, Mr. Trump’s approach to Greenland seems to reflect a view that in global affairs the strong act, vying with each other for dominance, and the weak live with the consequences. Just as he justified seizing control of Venezuela’s oil output in part by saying that otherwise China or Russia would do so, he has claimed that if the United States does not take over Greenland, one of those other powers will. Greenlanders don’t like that outlook, and especially his vow to simply “get” their island.

“We’ve never heard anyone talk like that about another country before,” said Ellen Frederiksen, a retired doctor in Narsaq, a town in the south.

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