Donald Trump’s Greenland rant as he provides wild purpose ‘ungrateful’ Denmark ought to hand it over
Trump made veiled threats to use America’s military might to secure “right, title and ownership” of Greenland – arguing Denmark is being ungrateful by refusing to give it to the US
Trump made the unhinged threats at the Davos summit(Image: Getty Images)
Donald Trump argued Denmark is “ungrateful” for the protection the United States gave Greenland during World War II – and they should give it back.
“We pay for NATO,” Trump said. “We paid for many years, until I came along, in my opinion 100% of NATO, because they weren’t paying their bills. And all we’re asking for is to get Greenland, including right, title, and ownership.”
And he warned world leaders that if Denmark doesn’t hand the territory over, that the US “will remember”.
During a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the US President claimed America “won World War II”, telling a silent room of the globe’s economic and political elites they would “all be speaking German and a little Japanese, perhaps” if it weren’t for the US.
“Every NATO ally has an obligation to be able to defend its own territory,” he said. “But the reality is that no nation has the ability to defend Greenland apart from the United States.”
Trump tried to focus on his efforts to tame inflation and spur the economy back home. But his appearance at the gathering of global elites focused more on his gripes with other countries. He said repeatedly that the US was in the best position to control Greenland and derided most of Europe for opposing the idea.
“This enormous unsecured island is actually part of North America,” Trump said. “That’s our territory.”
He also repeatedly referred to Greenland as Iceland.
He went on to claim the evidence for this was in World War II, when the US protected Greenland from the Nazis after Denmark fell. He said: “The United States was compelled to send our own forces to hold Greenland. And hold it we did at great expense.”
Describing Greenland as a “big piece of ice” that couldn’t really be called an island, he said: “After the war, which we won, we won it big – if it weren’t for us you’d all be speaking German and a little Japanese perhaps. After the war we gave Greenland back to Denmark, how stupid were we to do that? But we gave it back and how ungrateful are they now?”
He went on to issue veiled threats to use America’s military might to secure ownership of Greenland.
“We never ask for anything and we never got anything, we probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force,” he said. “We would be frankly unstoppable, but I won’t do that. That’s probably the biggest statement I made. Because people thought I would use force. I don’t want to use force. I don’t have to use force. All the United States is asking for is a place called Greenland, which we already had it as a trustee, but respectfully returned it after we defeated the Germans, the Japanese, the Italians and others in World War II. We gave it back to them. We were a powerful force then and we’re a much more powerful force now.”
Trump also spent a long stretch of his speech criticising the UK’s use of windmills to produce power, claiming it was the cause of high energy prices in the UK.
Before Trump spoke, Keir Starmer vowed, “I will not yield.”
“Britain will not yield on our principles and values about the future of Greenland under threats of tariffs, and that is my clear position,” he said at Prime Minister’s Questions.
