Thousands of Greenlanders marched against United States President Donald Trump. They carried protest signs, waved their national flag, and chanted “Greenland is not for sale” in defence of their self-governance amid growing fears of a US takeover.

As they completed their march on Saturday from the small city centre of Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, to the US consulate, news broke that Trump, speaking from his home in Florida, had announced a 10 percent import tax from February on goods from eight European countries, in retaliation for their opposition to US control of the Arctic island.

Trump has long argued that the US should own the strategically located, mineral-rich island, which is a self-governing territory of Denmark. He stepped up his calls a day after a US military operation ousted and abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month.

In Nuuk, Greenlanders of all ages listened to traditional songs as they walked to the consulate.

Tillie Martinussen, a former member of Greenland’s parliament, said she hopes the Trump administration will “abandon this crazy idea”.

“They started out by sort of touting themselves as our friends and allies, saying they wanted to make Greenland better for us than the Danes would,” she said, as chants rang out in the background. “And now they’re just outright threatening us.”

She said the fight to preserve NATO and Greenland’s autonomy was more important than concerns over tariffs, though she stressed she was not dismissing the potential economic impact.

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“This is a fight for freedom,” she said. “It’s for NATO; it’s for everything the Western Hemisphere has been fighting for since the second world war.”