In a steady stream of posts on social media, Morten Messerschmidt, the head of the Danish People's Party, is trying to extricate himself from the quagmire he has created for himself. "Portraying me as someone who serves a cause other than Denmark and who would sympathize with threats to our kingdom is unhealthy. It is slander," he wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday, January 18.
And yet, how can one not be surprised by the 180-degree turnaround of that same person? After all, a year ago he was posting selfies on X from Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump's property in Palm Beach, Florida; now, he is criticizing the Danish government, accusing it of trying to maintain dialogue with the US about Greenland. This position has left Messerschmidt isolated on the Danish political scene, where there is broad consensus around the strategy adopted by the coalition led by Social Democrat Mette Frederiksen.
Messerschmidt, who is thus no stranger to contradictions, was the only one to oppose the meeting between Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen and his Greenlandic counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt, with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on January 14. For him, "walking into the lion's den" and "inviting oneself to meetings with a nation that threatens Denmark" was dangerous.
These statements are all the more surprising given that Messerschmidt traveled to Florida in January 2025, at a time when Trump, then newly elected president, had already made clear his intention to annex the Danish autonomous territory. The billionaire's threats did not deter him. On the contrary: In a photo posted on X on January 20, 2025, he was seen attending a reception organized by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation in honor of Trump's inauguration, celebrating "common sense" and "wokeism" being dead.