Hundreds of Danish protesters, many of them veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, demonstrated outside the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen on Saturday.

The group protested against the president Donald Trumpthe push for the U.S. to acquire Greenland from Denmark, and his remarks at Davos that NATO troops were “holding back a little” as they fought alongside the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“They feel betrayed,” Carsten Rasmussen, president of the Danish Veterans Association, told The Associated Press. “Of course they were angry about it. They deployed. They fought the Americans. They fought the British. They fought together. They bled together. And as you heard today in front of the U.S. Embassy, ​​52 of them never came back.”

Forty-four Danish soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, the highest death toll per capita of any NATO country in the war, and eight more have been killed in Iraq. As of 2025, Denmark’s population will be just over 6 million.

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Protesters at the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen on Saturday. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

During the protest, demonstrators placed 52 flags with the names of the fallen outside the embassy.

“Behind all these flags there is a man, there is a soldier, there is a young man,” Lieutenant Colonel Niels Christian Kofod, a Dane who served in Afghanistan, told Reuters.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called Trump’s comments about staying “a little back” “insulting and frankly shocking,” and Trump wrote on The Truth Society: ” great and brave soldier Britain will always stand with the United States of America! “

But he didn’t acknowledge the sacrifices of others NATO forces.

“Denmark has always fought alongside the United States and has been present in crisis areas of the world when the United States asked us to do so,” Danish Veterans and Veterans Support, the group that organized the protest, said in a statement. “We are disappointed and ridiculed by the Trump administration, which willfully ignores Denmark’s fight alongside the United States.”

Hundreds of Danish military veterans and other demonstrators protested outside the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen on Saturday. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

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“Words cannot describe how much it hurts us that Denmark’s contributions and sacrifices in the struggle for democracy, peace and freedom are forgotten in society,” the organization added. White House“.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.

in greenland Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker told Fox News Digital that NATO has a “tendency to overreact.”

Whittaker said Greenland’s importance has been evident for years as the ice melts, reshaping the Arctic and opening up new shipping routes. “Safety in the High North is the most important issue and I have spoken about it many times before this happened,” he said. “As the ice melts and Arctic shipping routes open up, Arctic security and therefore Greenland safetyBeing on the north side of the continental United States is crucial. “

Protesters were “insulted” by President Donald Trump’s remarks that NATO troops were “a little behind” in Afghanistan and Iraq. (Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)

He emphasized that Greenland’s geographical location makes it central to U.S. defense planning. “If you look at Greenland as part of the incoming naval assets, the surveillance, awareness and defense of this part of the Western Hemisphere is critical to the long-term security of the United States,” Whitaker said.

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He said recent diplomacy showed the issue could be resolved without escalation. “I know, a very Successful meetings occur at Danes and Greenland and Vice President Vance and Secretary Rubio, so I think it will be constructive. ”