Tensions between Washington and one of its oldest allies are intensifying — and this time, it’s about more than just a real estate deal for Greenland.
Security officers at the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen pulled up 44 Danish flags left by veterans to honor their fallen soldiers. Why 44? Because that’s how many Danes were killed in Afghanistan — a conflict President Donald Trump recently suggested NATO allies like Denmark “stayed back” from.
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A video aired by Danish outlet TV2 showed a security guard removing the 44 flags from planters outside the embassy on Tuesday.
After the flags were removed, Danes responded by placing hundreds more Danish flags outside the embassy, CNN reported. The Washington Post said the backlash prompted a meeting among senior officials from Denmark, Greenland and the United States.
U.S. officials say security guards later returned the flags and that new flags now in front of the embassy will remain in place.
Why the flag dispute hit a nerve
The incident unfolded days after Trump told Fox Business that NATO allies’ troops in Afghanistan “stayed a little back, a little off the front lines” and that the United States had “never really asked anything of them.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen condemned Trump’s comments, calling them “unacceptable” and noting that Denmark suffered one of the highest losses in Afghanistan compared with other allies. The Washington Post previously quoted then–Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt saying in 2013 that Denmark was among “the countries that have carried the toughest load in Afghanistan”.
U.K. Prime Minister Kier Starmer’s office says he raised the issue with Trump during a phone call after the interview aired.
“The Prime Minister raised the brave and heroic British and American soldiers who fought side by side in Afghanistan, many of whom never returned home,” a spokesperson told Fox News. “We must never forget their sacrifice.”
Danish deployments
Denmark deployed roughly 12,000 service members to Afghanistan across about 21,000 individual tours from 2002 to 2021, according to the Danish Ministry of Defence. A 2019 U.S. Army War College study, covering rotations from 2008 to 2012, estimates the total at closer to 20,000 personnel, as Denmark fielded 17 task-force teams in Helmand Province.
In all, 44 Danes died — 37 killed in action and seven from illness, accidents or other causes.
Washington and Danish veteran response
A State Department spokesperson told CNN that the placement of the flags was not coordinated with embassy staff and that guards often clear flags, banners and signs left by demonstrators as “a general rule.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen said there was “no malicious intent in removing the flags” and that the U.S. has the deepest respect for Danish veterans.
The Danish Veteran Association called the removal “unnecessary and insensitive.” Its national chairman, Carsten Rasmussen, urged a restrained response, saying, “When they go low, we go high — and we respond with calmness, dignity and thoughtfulness,” according to the association’s translated Facebook message.
US–Danish relations
A January 2025 State Department fact sheet says the United States and Denmark have had a “close and mutually beneficial relationship” since 1801, underpinned by multiple defense agreements and a Defense Cooperation Agreement signed in 2023.
The document highlights Denmark’s role as a “strong NATO Ally,” its leadership of NATO Mission Iraq from 2020 to 2022 and its hosting of Pituffik Space Force Base in Greenland, which provides critical early-warning radar for U.S. and NATO forces.
