In an alarming turn of events, Denmark has accused three Americans with links to US President Donald Trump and CIA of attempting a regime change operation in Greenland, the semi-autonomous Danish territory.
After Denmark’s public broadcaster, DR, reported that three US citizens were involved in a secret plan to secede Greenland, Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen summoned the top U.S. diplomat in Copenhagen. Not to forget, Trump has several times expressed his desire to take over Greenland during his second term.
Minister Rasmussen said that the U.S. chargé d’affaires was summoned to discuss “outside attempts to influence” Greenland’s future.
Citing official sources from Danish and American government, DR reported that the three Americans involved in the alleged regime change operation have links with the Trump administration.
The idea was to push pro-US sentiments in Greenlanders. Reports say that one of the three Americans involved in the secret plot had prepared a list of “U.S.-friendly Greenlanders” and collected names of vocal Trump critics.
Meanwhile, the other two are accused of attempting to establish a network with Greenland politicians, business leaders, and locals. Although it remains unclear whether the individuals were acting on their own or were ordered by Trump administration to fuel pro-US secessionism in Greenland, a White House official told Daily Beast, “We think the Danes need to calm down.”
Earlier this year, it was reported by Wall Street Journal that top officials working under Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, issued the instruction to agency heads in a “collection emphasis message”. In this message, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency were all included. This message told chiefs to analyse Greenland’s independence movement and attitudes to American efforts to extract resources on the island.
Mineral-rich and strategically significant Greenland is Trump’s key to unlock dominance in Arctic Ocean
It must be recalled that in March this year, US Vice President JD Vance announced a visit to Greenland to receive briefing on Arctic security issues and engage with US service members. Despite a backlash from Danish government and Greenlanders, Vance visited the US-operated Pituffik Space Base in the semi-autonomous territory of Denmark.
Even during his first tenure as US President, Trump had shown interest in controlling Greenland, given its strategic and economic potential. In December 2024, Trump expressed his desire to gain control of Greenland. In a post on Truth Social, Trump asserted that it was an “absolute necessity.”
In March 2025, Trump reiterated his desire to control Greenland during his Congressional speech. This week as well, President Trump told the media, “I think Greenland is going to be something that maybe is in our future.”
Notably, Greenland, the world’s third largest island, carries immense economic, strategic as well as geopolitical significance owing to its unique location and resources. Since it is positioned between the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, Greenland falls along the key maritime and aerial routes. These routes connect North America with Europe. Given its proximity to the Arctic Circle, it is an important player in the rapidly changing Arctic region where melting ice due to climate change has unlocked both challenges and opportunities.
As ice sheets recede, Greenland’s vast deposits of rare earth minerals, gas, oil and other resources are becoming increasingly more accessible, further adding to the island’s importance. In addition to the natural resources, Greenland’s location enhances its military significance, especially for missile defence, space surveillance, as well as monitoring naval activities in the Arctic and the North Atlantic. Greenland also has an important role as a transit route in the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap or simply the GIUK Gap.
Trump wants to control Greenland as its unparalleled oversight of the North Atlantic and Arctic could be pivotal for the US to monitor and counter Russian, Chinese and even North Korean activities in the region. Greenland would help US dominate the Arctic shipping routes and also boost the US project power into the High North. Besides, Greenland has an abundance of neodymium, dysprosium, uranium, and other Rare Earth Elements, which are crucial for green technology manufacturing. Securing these diverse resources all in one place would help the US curb its dependence on China, which dominates the global supply of REEs.
Wherever the treasure of natural resources is found, US’s plane of ‘democracy’ piloted by CIA arrives
The US intelligence agency CIA has a history of executing regime change operations across various countries. Its covert actions have been focused on toppling foreign governments and replacing them with favourable, rather, subservient governments to the US. This is done by fueling anti-government sentiments, promoting secessionism, triggering violence, and employing several other tactics. Although this has been an old phenomenon, regime change tactics became entrenched in America’s foreign policy during the Cold War and continues to be an outrageous tactic of supporting coups, funding propaganda, and psychological warfare, election interference and even covert military action.
History is replete with examples of the CIA’s regime change operations. In 1953, under Operation Ajax, the CIA orchestrated the Iranian coup to overthrow Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. In 1954, under Operation PBSuccess, CIA supported a coup to oust President Jacobo Árbenz of Guatemala and install a military dictatorship, as his land reforms threatened US corporate interests.
In 1957-58, President Dwight Eisenhower authorised the CIA to subvert the Sukarno government in Indonesia. The CIA supported local insurgents to carry out guerrilla attacks and also hired mercenary airline companies for logistics and combat missions. The CIA operation named Operation RIPLEY was exposed after Indonesian forces downed the airplane of Allen Pope, a contractor for Civil Air Transport, the company that had been involved in Guatemala regime change operation. While the US government denied direct involvement, the failed operation embarrassed the CIA and it discontinued the operation.
In 1961, the CIA backed Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba by training Cuban exiles to invade and overthrow Fidel Castro’s government. The operation, however, failed and in its unintended consequence, Castro’s regime became even stronger.
In 1963, the US backed a coup against the government of Ngô Đình Diệm in Vietnam due to his role in the Vietnam War, leading to his assassination. CIA is also notorious for having carried out regime change operations in Latin America, particularly, Nicaragua, Honduras, and the Dominican Republic. In 1973, CIA covertly backed opposition to Chile President Salvador Allende, which resulted in a military coup led by Augusto Pinochet. Allende’s socialist policies were blamed for the agitation against him. Between 1979 and 1989, CIA funneled billions to Mujahideen terrorists under Operation Cyclone to oppose Soviet-backed government in Afghanistan. While the Soviet withdrawal was achieved, CIA’s actions ended up giving rise to Taliban.
With changing times, the US deep state, particularly, CIA also altered its tactics. Shifting from Cold War-era coups and direct interventions, the CIA pivoted to more subtle ‘soft power’ methods like economic sanctions, cyber operations, backing pliable opposition parties, and information warfare. These tactics not only offered plausible deniability but also served the purpose of destabilising the target governments, in response to geopolitical tensions or resource interests.
This shift was marked during Bill Clinton’s presidency in the US. Clinton enlisted billionaire hedge fund investor George Soros to fund massive networks of non-profit organisations, later media outlets, in countries of strategic significance to the US. Soros’s support to Bill and Hillary Clinton is quite widely known. Through these well-funded NGOs pretended to focus on human rights, poverty alleviation, education, and women and minority rights, the CIA exercised power, waged wars, orchestrated mass protests and even toppled governments in target countries. OpIndia has reported on many occasions how Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundation, USAID, Omidyar Network etc also tried to effect regime change in India in recent years, although their attempts failed to deter the Modi government.
The CIA also used cyberattacks, particularly, the Stuxnet virus in 2010 to target and weaken Iran’s nuclear program without direct military confrontation. In Syria, it is reported that the CIA ran covert operations to fund and train anti-Assad rebels during Syrian Civil War. Even President Trump had in his first term directed CIA to take action to oust Bashar al-Assad. Eventually, Assad regime fell in 2024 and now a pro-US former Islamic terrorist Sharaa heads Syria.
While the US denies, it has been alleged that the CIA orchestrated a plot to assassinate President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and destabilize the country. In 2020, the CIA backed a mercenary incursion in Venezuela. Venezuelan government said that American private military group Silvercorp USA and pro-US Venezuelan opposition leaders conspired to invade Venezuela and overthrow Maduro. The Venezuelan military, however, caught the American mercenaries and killed some of them.
The CIA also has a history in Brazil. In 1964, CIA backed a coup that overthrew João Goulart, a left-leaning president, whom the US saw as a communist threat. The US intelligence agency conducted covert operations, including funding anti-Goulart labour movements and carried out psyops to destabilise Goulart’s government. Eventually, the CIA managed to oust democratically elected President João Goulart through a coup executed by US-backed Brazillian military leaders.
Even in recent times, the CIA attempted a ‘Maidan-style’ uprising in Brazil in 2023 to oust President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva. It was reported that the supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace, with intention of provoking military coup. This alleged operation against Lula was to check Brazil against its ambition to align firmly with BRICS nations. The CIA has failed to oust Lula, who now is taking the Trump administration head on and has openly declared support for India and other BRICS nations in face of Trump’s tariff war.
The US intelligence agency has also been accused of orchestrating a regime change in Bangladesh in 2024, where student protests against quota laws magnified into anti-Sheikh Hasina protests and demands for her ouster from power. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was forced to resign from her post and flee to India in August 2024, has historically been opposed to US’s ambition of establishing military base on Bangladeshi soil. Hasina’s refusal to surrender Bangladesh’s sovereignty resulted in her ouster. It must be recalled that months prior to her unceremonious ouster, Hasina accused the United States of orchestrating her removal from the post of PM because she refused to hand over Saint Martin Island to the US, which would have enabled the western superpower to have “sway over the Bay of Bengal”.
In natural resource-rich Greenland, there is no dominant pro-US sentiment. However, Trump has a growing desire to control Greenland and the Arctic Ocean, where Russia and China are increasing dominance, it is highly likely that Trump administration may have ordered CIA to orchestrate a regime change.