Denmark’s king changes coat of arms – a signal to Donald Trump

New year, new coat of arms: Denmark’s King Frederik X had his country’s coat of arms redesigned at the turn of the year. Officially, his aim is to “create a contemporary royal coat of arms that both reflects the imperial community and takes history, including heraldic tradition, into account,” as the royal family said in a statement.

Work on the new coat of arms began shortly after Frederik X’s accession to the throne in January 2024. However, the new design of the coat of arms can now also be understood as a clear signal to the future US President Donald Trump. The message: Greenland is part of us.

Trump recently stated again and again that he wanted the United States to buy Greenland. This caused outrage in Copenhagen, but also in the Greenland capital Nuuk – and was rebuffed.

The previous coat of arms shows two lions on the shield in the field at the top right. At the bottom left were three crowns, a polar bear and a ram. In the now valid version there is a ram at the top right and a polar bear at the bottom left, both significantly larger than on the previous coat of arms.

The Kingdom of Denmark consists of three autonomous regions: the country of Denmark, which is usually understood synonymously, on the Jutland peninsula, on Funen, Zealand, Lolland, Falster and other islands, as well as the Faroe Islands and Greenland in the North Atlantic. The latter two are now represented much more prominently on the kingdom’s coat of arms. The ram is the symbol for the Faroe Islands, the polar bear stands for Greenland.

Frederik the – who even lives outside the kingdom – all the way to Greenland. “We belong together.”

Royal experts like Lars Hovbakke Sørensen agree with the ruler. On the Danish television station TV2 he says: “It is important to signal from the Danish side that Greenland and the Faroe Islands are part of the Danish empire and that this is not up for discussion. This is how you mark it.”