Former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark Rufus Gifford is outraged that approximately 30 employees at the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen and the U.S. Consulate in Nuuk were ordered in June to hand over all documents and written communications about Donald Trump and his ambition to acquire Greenland that they had written or received over a three-month period.
»This feels like a purge campaign,« said Gifford, who served as ambassador to Denmark under Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017 and later became chief of protocol at the U.S. Department of State under Joe Biden.
In that latter role, he had overarching responsibility for diplomatic formalities during state visits and when the President traveled internationally.
»I have never seen anything like this,« he added.
As Politiken previously reported, the order to hand over the politically sensitive material came directly from the U.S. Department of State in Washington. The request follows a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the highly conservative American organization Judicial Watch.
The handed-over material was to be sent to the U.S. Department of State in Washington, which would then pass it on to Judicial Watch after processing it according to U.S. FOIA regulations.
The order included not only internal working documents but also anything employees might have written in text messages, chat messages, and social media posts—even from their private accounts on platforms like WhatsApp. According to the U.S. Department of State, the order was justified by a FOIA request the department had received.
»This feels a bit more politically targeted,« Gifford said, noting that such requests typically come from journalists:
»This does not feel like people trying to serve the public interest.«
Fear
Even though Rufus Gifford emphasizes that he does not want to comment on Judicial Watch or the reasons behind the FOIA request, he says that it rather resembles a »political loyalty test than anything else« and aims to spread fear.
»The idea behind this is that if you refuse to hand over your personal devices and share the information on, for example, your phone, it could be grounds for dismissal. Therefore, the fear is that you either cooperate—or risk losing your job,« he said, pointing to right-wing activist Laura Loomer as one of the people Trump uses to target political opponents.
»One of the particularly unheard-of things about Donald Trump is that he uses citizens like Laura Loomer to identify and fire disloyal people in the administration. I have never seen this before, and it is an extremely unfortunate way for a president to act.«
Both Danish and American experts are puzzled by the extensive nature of the handover requirement.
»I cannot remember ever having to hand over text messages or Signal chats, WhatsApp messages, and the like. I do not remember that,« Gifford said.
In the service of diplomacy
The requested material covered the period from October 1 through January 7 of this year, when Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., visited Nuuk in Greenland.
In addition to Trump’s ambitions to acquire Greenland, the handover order also included documents about his son’s visit and all emails from the relevant period that were either sent to or received from the U.S. Consul in Nuuk, Monica Bland, and contained the term ’Trump.’ This is according to a series of internal emails obtained by Politiken.
According to Gifford, this is a deeply concerning development that could harm American interests if employees end up losing their jobs at the Embassy in Copenhagen or the Consulate in Nuuk because they expressed critical views regarding Trump’s desire to acquire Greenland.
»To me, this is exactly what they are hired to do: to express concerns to their superiors about the absurdity of such demands—and explain why. And if someone actually loses their job on that basis, it completely undermines American foreign policy and diplomacy. And that is a shame.«
»Am I surprised? Not at all,« said Gifford, who believes that the most important role for diplomats at an embassy is to provide their advice and guidance to their superiors.
A growing trend
Since Trump’s inauguration, thousands of employees have been fired across various U.S. departments, agencies, and authorities. Meanwhile, Tulsi Gabbard, who heads the U.S. intelligence agencies, has established an internal working group aimed at investigating whether employees in the agencies are loyal to the Trump administration.
Gifford believes the development is deeply absurd. He points out that as ambassador, he had several Republican colleagues who celebrated Trump’s election victory in 2016:
»I never had the feeling that they could not perform their work professionally and effectively.«
He argues that the Trump administration’s war against the American civil service is reminiscent of U.S. Senator Joe McCarthy, who led a witch hunt against suspected communists in the American civil service in the 1950s.
»There is no doubt that loyalty tests are currently taking place throughout the U.S. government.«
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