Dismissed as a pipe dream during his first term in office, President Trump’s determination to wrest control of Greenland is very much alive at the start of his second term.

Amid new reports of a fiery, threat-filled phone call before his inauguration last week with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Mr. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One over the weekend that he was not only still pursuing the strategically-located, mineral-rich island, but he was confident that Copenhagen would agree to a deal and that Greenlanders would rather be under the American flag.

“I do believe we’ll get Greenland because it really has to do with the freedom of the world,” Mr. Trump said Saturday. “It has nothing to do with the United States, other than we’re the one that can provide the freedom.”

Intriguingly, new Secretary of State Marco Rubio held a standard, 20-minute introductory phone call with Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen on Friday, the day before Mr. Trump’s Greenland remarks.

The State Department readout of the call contained the usual diplomatic boilerplate, and nothing on Greenland.

“Secretary Rubio reaffirmed the strength of the relationship between the United States and the Kingdom of Denmark,” the State Department summary said. “Secretary Rubio and Foreign Minister Rasmussen discussed the importance of deepening bilateral and regional cooperation on security and defense, economic and trade matters, and ending the war in Ukraine.”

Mr. Rasmussen told reporters the two men had discussed “the Arctic region,” but said the conversation had a “good and constructive tone.”

As they did during Mr. Trump’s first term, Danish officials have insisted in recent days that the island is not for sale.

A Danish colony until 1979, Greenland now is self-ruled domestically with its own parliament, but remains a territory of Denmark, which oversees its foreign and national security policies.

Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede supports independence for the island but has opposed a sale to the United States. Greenland can only declare independence through a national referendum.

The intensity of Mr. Trump’s interest could be measured by the heat of the phone call with Ms. Frederiksen earlier this month.

The Financial Times, citing a number of unnamed European officials, described the call as contentious and “horrendous,” with Mr. Trump reportedly threatening tariffs and other economic measures against the smaller NATO ally if Denmark refused to sell Greenland.

Danish officials say an estimated 100,000 jobs in the country are directly related to trade and investment with the vastly bigger U.S. market.

Mr. Trump did not characterize the call, and the Danish prime minister’s office took issue with the report. Ms. Frederiksen “did not recognize the interpretation of the conversation given by anonymous sources.”

But the prime minister called a meeting of the heads of all of Denmark’s major parties in her office the day after the difficult phone call with Mr. Trump, reported DR, the state-supported national broadcaster.

The purpose of the meeting was to coordinate a response across the country’s political spectrum to Mr. Trump’s Greenland push.

“This is not easy, and it’s not going to be easy,” Martin Lidegaard, head of the Social Liberal party who attended the meeting, told the broadcaster. “When we are in a foreign policy crisis, like the one we are in now — a serious situation — we fortunately have a strong tradition in the Danish Parliament of trying to maintain unity between the parties.”

In addition to straddling key shipping lanes that are opening up as the Arctic ice cap recedes, Greenland has long been home to a U.S. military base and a ballistic missile early warning system.

Greenland’s strategic value has also soared in recent years as several nations — including both Russia and China — rush to stake new economic and security claims as the Arctic region warms.

Mr. Trump contended that Greenland’s approximately 60,000 inhabitants favor union with Washington.

“I think the people want to be with us,” Mr. Trump told reporters Saturday. “I don’t really know what claim Denmark has to it, but it would be a very unfriendly act if they didn’t allow that to happen.”

Denmark is a member of both NATO and the European Union, and a clash with the new Trump administration could send shock waves across a continent where many are already on edge about the new American administration.

Before being sworn in, Mr. Trump at a press briefing earlier this month refused to rule out military action as he presses for control of both Greenland and the Panama Canal.

Danish officials are reportedly torn over how to respond to Mr. Trump’s pressure. Some say it is better to play down the tensions and hope the controversy blows over, while others have taken a more defiant tone.

“It is up to the U.S. how far they will go,” Rasmus Jarlov, chairman of the Danish Parliament’s defense committee, wrote on X after Mr. Trump’s comments. “But come what may, we are still going to say no.”

— This article was based in part on wire service reports.

• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.