EMILY KWONG, HOST:
Veterans in Denmark are expressing anger and betrayal over President Trump's recent comments about NATO allies in Afghanistan and his attempts to take over Greenland. In an interview last month at Davos, Trump appeared to denigrate NATO allies by suggesting that their troops, quote, "stayed a little back" and "off the front lines" during the war. Danish soldiers fought in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq and have been making their voices heard in the streets of the Danish capital. Adrienne Murray reports from Copenhagen.
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ADRIENNE MURRAY, BYLINE: Carrying regimental flags and banners, saying no words, hundreds of Danish veterans and thousands of supporters marched to the U.S. embassy, calling for an apology.
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MURRAY: Wearing a beret and his campaign medals was former Army captain Nikolaj Thide.
NIKOLAJ THIDE: I lost several of my friends and colleagues in Afghanistan, so this thing became, for all of us, very emotional. And that's why we stand together here to show the U.S. establishment that you are wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Speaking Danish).
MURRAY: The veterans are angry about comments by President Donald Trump, who they feel has questioned the loyalty of NATO allies and disparaged their roles in Afghanistan. Danes have a long history of serving alongside American forces. For retired Colonel Soren Knudsen, who's also vice president of the Danish Veterans Association, Trump's claims that the U.S. never asked anything of NATO allies and that their troops stayed off the front lines have gone too far.
SOREN KNUDSEN: We feel angry, but we feel betrayal and we feel sad about this situation. The one thing is that he offends our countries and historically is not correct. We were there for the Americans within minutes, hours, days of what happened at 9/11.
MURRAY: Inside Kastellet, a centuries-old fortification and barracks, which still houses soldiers, veterans of all ages had gathered first by a national memorial honoring those killed in action. Forty-four Danish soldiers lost their lives in Afghanistan, and many more were wounded. For a small country of 6 million, Denmark's losses per capita were on par with the Americans'. Another eight servicemen also died in Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Private B. Larsen (ph).
MURRAY: The names of each fallen soldier were read out loud as Danish flags were ceremoniously planted in front of the U.S. embassy. And the solemn crowd observed several minutes of silence. Watching on, supporters Leila Qvant and Theis Munsted held up a sign reading, no words.
LEILA QVANT: I cry. I cry when they read the name.
THEIS MUNSTED: We just feel like their memory are being tarnished by the way the American president talk about what they did.
MURRAY: Public opinion towards the United States has significantly soured. Trump's desire to take control of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, has also angered veterans. Dressed in a traditional white Greenlandic anorak, Gerth Sloth Berthelsen, a sergeant major and chair of Veteran Project Greenland, wore a red MAGA-like baseball cap emblazoned with the slogan Make America Go Away.
GERTH SLOTH BERTHELSEN: When these words came from President Trump and his administration, my first thoughts went to those who didn't get their loved ones back home alive. There are many veterans suffering from posttraumatic stress. All those people are sitting down, thinking, is that the kind of thank you you give to someone?
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER: (Speaking Danish).
MURRAY: A few streets away from the Kastellet barracks, dozens of young soldiers were changing the guard outside the royal palace. Denmark's leaders have cultivated close ties with the U.S. for decades - a position that is getting harder and harder to maintain. For NPR News, I'm Adrienne Murray in Copenhagen. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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