Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, whom Trump named special envoy to Greenland in December, arrived in Nuuk on Sunday, May 17, 2026, with no meetings arranged with any politicians, according to Reuters as cited by the Daily Beast. He told Danish broadcaster DR that Trump had told him to “go over there and make as many friends as we can get.” He got a frosty reception, including a middle finger from one resident, The New York Times reported.
Landry offered local children MAGA hats, which a few declined, and told them that if they visited his Louisiana mansion he would give them “all the chocolate chip cookies you can eat.” Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told Danish public broadcasting, “We have our red lines. No matter how many chocolate cookies we get, we are not going to change them.” Landry replied, “There's only one line and it's red, white, and blue.” Videos circulating online showed residents giving him the middle finger, a boy turning down a photo, and a woman following him through the streets shouting, “Don't come here—go home!”
Landry also told reporters that “Greenland was not on a map, until Donald Trump put it on a map.” Republican Rep. Don Bacon answered on X: “Greenland has been on the map for centuries. And… it is our ally. Stop treating our friends like dirt.” Landry told Agence France-Presse it was “time for the US to put its footprint back on Greenland.”
Landry did meet Nielsen, who described a “courtesy meeting” held with “mutual respect and in a positive atmosphere” but said, “The Greenlandic people are not for sale. Greenlandic self-determination is not something that can be negotiated.” Landry attended the Future Greenland business conference, whose organizer told Reuters it had not invited him but that anyone could sign up, and left Nuuk on the night of Wednesday, May 20. Hundreds of people protested the opening of a new U.S. consulate in Nuuk, which the prime minister said he would not attend.
The visit echoed Vice President JD Vance's three-hour 2025 stop at a U.S. base in Greenland. Trump has repeatedly said the United States should take control of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and a U.S.-Greenland-Denmark working group is still trying to resolve the U.S. demands.
Correction (October 2, 2026): This entry said the mission “failed to build diplomatic relationships or advance Trump's acquisition interest”; no source made that assessment, and Nielsen described his meeting with Landry as respectful and positive, so the claim was removed. The entry also said Landry attended the conference uninvited without noting the organizer's statement that anyone could sign up, and said Greenland's residents and government had “repeatedly and explicitly refused” U.S. overtures, which overstated Nielsen's stated position that self-determination is not negotiable while Greenland seeks cooperation with the United States.