President Trump said on Friday that he may impose tariffs on countries that refuse to support his plan for the United States to take over Greenland.
Escalating tensions with European allies already alarmed by his repeated claims that the Arctic territory is vital to U.S. national security, as he told reporters at an unrelated White House event, “I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland because we need Greenland for national security,” adding, “So I may do that,” while doubling down on his push to annex the autonomous Danish territory following a U.S. military operation in Venezuela that led to the capture of President Nicolás Maduro.
Insisting earlier this month aboard Air Force One that “Right now Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place,” and that “Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” even as European leaders strongly rejected the idea, with seven top leaders issuing a joint statement saying “it is for Denmark and Greenland, and them only, to decide on matters concerning Denmark and Greenland,” and Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen warning Washington to back off, saying, “No more pressure. No more hints. No more fantasies about annexation,” and adding, “When the President of the United States talks about ‘we need Greenland’ and connects us with Venezuela and military intervention, it’s not just wrong, it’s so disrespectful.”
As talks between U.S., Danish and Greenlandic officials at the White House this week failed to resolve what Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen called a “fundamental disagreement,” prompting Denmark to announce a bolstered military presence around Greenland, with Sweden and Germany also pledging to send personnel.
While the Trump administration has kept the possibility of force on the table, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt saying that “utilizing the U.S. military is always an option at the Commander-in-Chief’s disposal,” a stance Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned could spell the end of NATO, even as experts argue that annexing Greenland is unnecessary for U.S. security and that maintaining the NATO alliance is far more critical, marking the first time Trump has publicly raised tariffs as a tool to pressure countries over Greenland despite frequently using the tactic in other disputes.