A message to the US President: Dear Trump, “You are scaring the children of Greenland”

In a café in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, Lieke Linge looks tenderly at her four children as they sip hot chocolate, oblivious to the unrest taking place on their island.

Since Donald Trump returned to the White House last year and renewed his ambitions to acquire Greenland, international politics has begun to infiltrate the homes of the residents of this polar island.

Due to statements containing implicit threats from the US President, the situation has become worrying for some residents here, but everyone is trying to reassure their children.

“There is a lot of turmoil in the world… but with our love for our country, we have higher values ​​that enable us to sleep in peace without fear,” says Lingeh, a 42-year-old lawyer.

On January 27, 2025, one week after the inauguration of Donald Trump, Greenlandic authorities published a guide entitled “How do we talk to children in times of uncertainty?”

“When someone says they will come to take over our country or bomb us or something like that, it is natural for children to feel very afraid because they cannot understand what is going on in the midst of this news,” said Tina Dam, head of programs at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in the Danish region.

– Unanswered questions
This guide, to which UNICEF contributed, recommends that parents remain calm and open, listen to their children and be sensitive to their feelings, and limit their exposure to the news.

As in many parts of the world, social media, especially TikTok, has become the main source of information for young people.

“Today, children have access to a huge amount of information that is not appropriate for them…and certainly not appropriate for their age,” Dam added.

She continued, “Therefore, as adults, we must be aware of this, be careful to protect our children, and be able to talk to them about what they hear, because the speech is very aggressive.”

But reassuring children is difficult when we don’t have answers to many of their questions.

Arnakolok Jo Kleist, a 41-year-old private consultant, said she talks a lot with her 13-year-old daughter, Manumina.

She added that her daughter is also busy with Tik Tok videos, but “fortunately, she does not seem as nervous as we are.”

She explained, “Sometimes questions are asked – what if such and such happened – to which I do not have answers, because no one has answers to such questions.”

– “Dear Donald Trump”
Kleist noted that Inuit culture in the Arctic region also helped her.

She said, “We have a history and circumstances in our country where things sometimes happen, and we are accustomed to being in situations that are beyond our control… We try to adapt to them and ask ourselves: What can I do in this situation?”

Some children and young people in Greenland are using social media to get their message out to the world.

Marley (7 years old) and his sister Mila (14 years old) appeared in a video clip that went viral and received more than two million views on Instagram, equivalent to 35 times the population of Greenland.

The boy addresses the US President seriously but in a playful tone, saying, “Dear Donald Trump, I have a message for you: You are scaring the children of Greenland.”

With sharp looks, Marley and his sister say to Trump, “Greenland is not for sale.”

“It’s a way of adapting. It’s suitable for children, but it’s also serious,” his mother, Panningwak Heilman Sigurdsen, told AFP, commenting on the video. “I think he strikes a balance between being serious, and at the same time, the children in it speak their language.”