| Welcome to the weekend issue of Brussels Edition, Bloomberg's daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union. Join us on Saturdays for deeper dives from our bureaus across Europe. COPENHAGEN — It's not a crisis until someone says it's a crisis. That seems to be the mantra in Denmark this week, where the government has found itself in the middle of a fight it neither expected nor wanted. After President-elect Donald Trump stepped up his rhetoric on Greenland, a self-ruling territory of Denmark, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has balanced standing up to the US without ruffling Trump's feathers. She's maintained that line despite Trump's refusal to rule out military force and the sudden visit of his son to the island. Frederiksen — who Trump said had a "nasty" response back in 2019 when he first proposed taking over Greenland — has also had to address various insinuations that Danes are racist and won't allow the island to harness its natural resources. Even though Trump has yet to offer any explanation for how a Greenland purchase could even work, opposition leaders insist the dispute is serious, with Pelle Dragsted, the spokesperson for the Danish Unity Party calling it "deeply disrespectful." A commentator for one of the country's largest newspapers called it a "total humiliation" of the Danish government and said it can't ignore this provocation. For the Danes more broadly, the past week has been unsettling too. Having witnessed most of Trump's outbursts from afar, they now find themselves squarely at the receiving end of one of his missives, sparking outrage, disbelief and fear. As one analyst and columnist put it: "Denmark is, in the truest sense of the word, screwed." A poll published this week shows that a majority of Danes want to keep Greenland in the union. Most of the respondents also feel the commonwealth is an advantage to Denmark, though more so for Greenland. One Danish website even started selling €19 Trump meme T-shirts featuring his picture and the phrase: "I'm going to make Denmark an offer it cannot refuse."  Trump T-shirt In response to all of this, Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen reminded colleagues and the Danes that you can take "Trump seriously without taking him literally," telling everyone to "get their pulse down." Indeed, Europe's response to the whole incident has been relatively muted, with most countries doing their best to stay off Trump's radar just days ahead of what's shaping up to be a very disruptive administration. — Sara Sjolin, Copenhagen bureau chief | 
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