Video doesn’t show troops preparing to defend Greenland against US

Are some European nations assembling troops in Greenland because of U.S. threats to that territory? 

A March 30 Facebook post said it had footage showing just that:  

"France and Denmark are sending troops to Greenland to prepare for (an) attack from Donald Trump," the post said. "World War III fighting Europe." 

The video, labeled "Sunday March 30th," showed about a dozen people exiting an "Atlantic Airways" plane using a red staircase. Text added to the clip said: "Hundreds of special forces from Denmark were dispatched to Greenland in order to enhance defense in response to threats from the US."

Another Facebook user shared the video, writing, "Ain’t America great? So great that now Greenland and Denmark feel threatened…" 

These posts were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

(Screenshot from Facebook)

President Donald Trump has expressed his desire to annex Greenland for what he describes as national security reasons. And Vice President JD Vance visited the United States’ Pituffik Space Base in Greenland March 28. 

But the video shared online does not show Danish or French military personnel assembling to respond to U.S. threats, according to a Greenland Police spokesperson. And we found no credible reports that Denmark or France sent troops to Greenland.

Using a reverse image search, the earliest date we found someone sharing this video was March 23. 

A YouTube channel described the footage as "Danish & American diplomats" arriving in Nuuk, Greenland, but an X user said it showed, "About 100 police officers with 3 police dogs arrived to Nuuk, Greenland from Denmark." 

Hjørdis Joanardottir Poulsen, a Greenland Police spokesperson, pointed to a March 24 press release that, when translated to English, said Greenland Police "requested assistance from Danish police districts" to manage the delegation of U.S. visitors.

"For operational reasons, we are not providing details about our efforts and measures, but we can inform you that we did receive Danish officers as assistance on March 23," Poulsen told PolitiFact via email. "It is completely normal procedure to request assistance from other districts when there are major events. The police always make a specific assessment of whether an event or visit gives rise to any additional police measures. This is the reason why we asked our Danish colleagues to help with the task." 

She confirmed that the video showed "our Danish colleagues arriving on March 23."

A Denmark Ministry of Defense spokesperson pointed us to the Danish media company DR’s March 23 report that said Danish police officers were on the way to Nuuk, Greenland, ahead of the U.S. delegation’s visit. 

On March 28, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen posted a video in which he rebuked the Trump administration’s rhetoric. 

Featured Fact-check

Social Media

stated on March 5, 2025 in in social media posts

"Apple quietly removed International Women’s Day from their calendar app.”

"We are open to criticism," Rasmussen said. "But let me be completely honest. We do not appreciate the tone in which it’s being delivered. This is now how you speak to your close allies. And I still consider Denmark and the United States to be close allies."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lars Løkke Rasmussen (@larsloekke)

Rasmussen’s video included no mention of Danish or French troop movements. 

On March 29, Trump refused for at least the second time to say the U.S. would refrain from using military action to take Greenland. 

Using Google searches and the Lexis news database, we found no credible reports that Denmark or France sent troops to Greenland. 

In January, Politico reported that the French Foreign Minister said France had "started discussing [troop deployment] with Denmark," but Denmark didn’t want to proceed. We found no reports suggesting Denmark’s position changed. 

We rate the claim a video showed "France and Denmark are sending troops to Greenland to prepare for (an) attack from Donald Trump" False. 

PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

Editor’s Note: Google Translate was used when researching this story to translate websites and press releases into English.