Björk shared a message of support for the people of Greenland on Monday morning (Jan. 5) just days after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a brash early morning military assault on the country on Saturday (Jan. 3).

“I wish all greenlanders blessing in their fight for independence,” the Icelandic singer wrote on Instagram of the two countries that share a Viking heritage and historically friendly relations. “Icelanders are extremely relieved that they managed to break from the danish in 1944 ,
we didn´t loose our language ( my children would be speaking danish now ) and i burst with sympathy for greenlanders,” Björk added.

The message appeared to be spurred by the latest chatter from Donald Trump in which he renewed his talk of wanting to annex Greenland for what he claimed were strategic defense reasons. “We need Greenland for a national security situation,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday (Jan. 4). “It’s so strategic. Right now, Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place.” A day earlier, Trump, who came into office promising to end U.S. interventions overseas, also told the Atlantic, “We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defense.”

Greenland is a semi-autonomous region of Denmark and since his election last year Trump has repeatedly veered from his staunch “America First” policy by threatening to make the country (as well as Canada) part of the United States. He also appeared to abrogate his MAGA marching orders to focus on domestic matters over the past few months with a series of attacks on boats in the Caribbean which he’s claimed, with scant evidence so far, were ferrying dangerous drugs, ending with Maduro’s adbuction over the weekend. Following Maduro’s capture Trump claimed that the U.S. would “run” Venezuela for an indefinite period of time, with no announced plan so far about how that government takeover would play out.

One of Trump’s former staunchest defenders, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — who announced last year that she is resigning as of today (Jan. 5) following a public split with the president — told the New York Times on Saturday that the Venezuela attack could lead to the kind of open-ended conflict that Trump has repeatedly claimed he was against, calling it “what many in MAGA thought they voted to end… Boy were we wrong.”

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen pushed back against Trump’s latest imperialist threat, saying America must stop its unprovoked saber-rattling about annexing Greenland immediately. “It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the U.S. needing to take over Greenland. The U.S. has no right to annex any of the three countries in the Danish Kingdom,” Frederiksen said in a statement on Sunday, noting that Denmark, and by proxy Greenland, are part of NATO and “therefore covered by the alliance’s security guarantee.”

Frederiksen also reminded the White House that the two countries already have a defense agreement and have historically been close allies, with Greelandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen dubbing Trump’s remarks “very rude and disrespectful.“

“Colonialism has repeatedly given me horror chills up my back, and the chance that my fellow greenlanders might go from one cruel coloniser to another is too brutal to even imagine,” Björk wrote, adding a common Icelandic phrase that translates to “from ashes into the fire.”

“dear greenlanders declare independence !!!!,” Björk pleaded. “sympathetic wishes from your neighbours warmthness.” Trump’s renewed call for the U.S. to take control of Greenland.”