Trump is likely to ramp up his push to acquire Greenland when he descends on Davos on Wednesday, facing down European opposition to his plans in the biggest fraying of transatlantic ties in decades.
– Trump told a news conference on Tuesday that he would have meetings about the Danish territory of Greenland in Davos and was optimistic that an agreement could eventually be reached.
– “I think we will work something out where NATO is going to be very happy and where we’re going to be very happy. But we need it for security purposes. We need it for national security,” he said.
– NATO leaders have warned that Trump’s Greenland strategy could upend the alliance, while the leaders of Denmark and Greenland have offered a wide array of ways for a greater U.S. presence on the strategic island territory of 57,000 people.
– “You’ll find out,” said Trump, who has linked Greenland to his anger at not receiving a Nobel Peace Prize, when asked how far he is willing to go.
– U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent further stoked the war of words being played out with Washington’s allies on Wednesday when he called Denmark “irrelevant“.
– “Denmark’s investment in the U.S. Treasury bonds, like Denmark itself, is irrelevant,” Bessent said in Davos when asked whether the issue could spark a sell-off in U.S. Treasuries by investors in Europe, such as pension funds in Denmark and elsewhere.
– “President Trump and other leaders are right. We have to do more there. We have to protect the Arctic against Russian and Chinese influence,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said.
– “We are working on that, making sure that collectively we’ll defend the Arctic region,” Rutte added.
– Trump has been unrelenting in making his case for acquiring Greenland as an Arctic guardpost against Russia and China, and has threatened a trade war with Europeans who oppose him.
– There is little evidence that many Chinese or Russian ships pass near Greenland’s coasts, while Russia says talk of Moscow and Beijing being a threat is a myth to whip up hysteria.
– Trump’s push on Greenland is related to a legacy-building desire to expand the territory of the United States in the biggest way since 1959. That was when two U.S. territories – Alaska and Hawaii – became the 49th and 50th U.S. states under Republican President Dwight Eisenhower.
– In a breach of diplomatic protocol, Trump released the text of a private message he received from Emmanuel Macron in which the French President urged Trump to join him and other G7 leaders in Paris after Davos, an idea Trump dismissed. “I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland,” wrote Macron.
– Macron’s office said on Wednesday that France has asked for a NATO exercise in Greenland and is ready to contribute to it, while Copenhagen declined to comment on a TV2 report that it was considering deploying up to 1,000 soldiers there in 2026.
– Trump also plans separate meetings with the leaders of Switzerland, Poland and Egypt and is due to preside on Thursday over a ceremony marking the Board of Peace, a group he formed that is aimed at redeveloping Gaza.
– Trump raised some worries by saying it may work on other global crises, a role usually performed by the United Nations.