An unidentified heckler interrupted actor Vanessa Williams as she performed the U.S. national anthem before Sunday’s NBA game in London between the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies, shouting, “Leave Greenland alone!”
Williams sang The Star-Spangled Banner just before tipoff at the game at the O2 Arena and as she neared the end of the song, the heckler’s interruption was met with some applause from the crowd.
Williams was unfazed by the outburst and completed the song.
Frustrated sports fans in arenas across Canada have occasionally booed loudly while the U.S. national anthem is played at NHL and NBA games in the past few years — even during a WWE Elimination Chamber event in Toronto in March — in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposed tariffs on the country and his comments about making Canada the “51st state.”
Trump himself received a mixed reaction from the crowd at Yankee Stadium in New York in September. During the U.S. national anthem, Trump was shown on the stadium Jumbotron and received a mix of boos and cheers from the crowd.
Trump has insisted that the U.S. should control Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and said last week that anything less than the Arctic island being in U.S. hands would be “unacceptable.”
During an unrelated event at the White House about rural health care, he recounted Friday how he had threatened European allies with tariffs on pharmaceuticals.
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“I may do that for Greenland too,” Trump said. “I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland, because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that.”
The foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland met in Washington on Jan. 14 with U.S. Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
That encounter didn’t resolve the deep differences, but did produce an agreement to set up a working group — on whose purpose Denmark and the White House then offered sharply diverging public views.
European leaders have insisted that it is only for Denmark and Greenland to decide on matters concerning the territory, and Denmark said it was increasing its military presence in Greenland in co-operation with allies.
Asked during an interview with the Atlantic what the U.S. military action in Venezuela could portend for Greenland, Trump replied: “They are going to have to view it themselves. I really don’t know.”
“We do need Greenland, absolutely. We need it for defence,” Trump added.
Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, posted a photo on X of the territory covered with the American flag, writing, “SOON.”
Greenland’s leader said “enough is enough” after Trump renewed his threats to take over the territory.
“Threats, pressure, and talk of annexation do not belong anywhere between friends,” Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said on Facebook on Jan. 4. “That’s not how you talk to people who have repeatedly shown responsibility, stability and loyalty.
“Enough is enough. No more pressure. No more hints. No more fantasies about annexation.”
Nielsen said Greenland is “open for dialogue” and “open to conversations.”
He also addressed the photo that Miller shared on social media, writing, “First and foremost, let me say calmly and clearly, that there is neither reason for panic nor for insecurity.”
“The photo shared by Katie Miller of Greenland being produced wrapped in an American flag doesn’t change anything. Our country is not for sale and our future is not determined by social media posts,” he wrote.
“But the picture is disrespectful. The relations between countries and people are based on respect and on international law and not on symbolic markings that ignore our status and our rights.
“There’s no need to panic. But there’s good reason to speak up against the lack of respect.”
Trump has repeatedly called for U.S. jurisdiction over Greenland, and has pointedly not ruled out military force to take control of the mineral-rich, strategically located Arctic island that belongs to an ally.
In December 2025, Trump said the U.S. is not interested in Greenland for its mineral wealth.
“We have so many sites for minerals and oil and everything. We have more oil than any other country in the world,” Trump said. “We’ll have to work it all out.”
Trump initially voiced his interest in Greenland in 2019 during his first term in office. He said Greenland was “hurting Denmark very badly” and costing it US$700 million a year. His solution was to have the United States acquire Greenland, calling it “a large real estate deal.”
— With files from The Associated Press
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