Trump says he’s considering putting a tariff on nations that “if they don’t go along with Greenland”, insisting again that the US needs to own the country for national security
Donald Trump says he’s considering slapping tariffs on countries that oppose his plan to invade Greenland.
In the most alarming threat yet in his bid to take over the island, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a Nato ally, he told reporters today: “I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland,” the president said, without providing details. “We need Greenland for national security.”
The threat is not necessarily an idle one. Trump has frequently used the threat of tariffs as his main tool in achieving his foreign policy objectives.
But he’d not previously mentioned using tariffs to try and force the issue. European leaders have joined Denmark in saying the U.S. can’t control the world’s largest island.
Talks between the US, Denmark and Greenland this week ended in disaster, with Denmark saying there were still “fundamental disagreements” on Greenland’s future.
A “high level working group” will be set up to try and find ways to give Trump what he wants from Greenland short of handing it over.
Meanwhile, reports suggest Trump’s administration is prepared to pay the people of Greenland cash amounting to billions of dollars if they back their country changing hands.
“It is in everybody’s interest — even though we disagree — that we agree to try to explore whether it is doable to accommodate some of the concerns while at the same time respecting the integrity of the Danish kingdom’s territory and the self-determination of the Greenlandic people,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said on Wednesday. Following the discussions with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Rubio, Løkke Rasmussen, said, “Even though our view on the situation right now around Greenland differs from public statements in the U.S., we share the concerns in the longtime perspective.”
Mr Rasmussen said Denmark and Greenland will continue the dialogue with the U.S. despite a “fundamental disagreement” about the future of the Arctic island.
“We have decided to form a high-level working group to explore if we can find a common way forward,” Rasmussen said during a press conference following his and his Greenlandic’s counterpart meeting with Vance and Rubio in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.
“The group, in our view, should focus on how to address the American security concerns, while at the same time respecting the red lines of the Kingdom of Denmark.” The minister said the working group would meet for the first time “within a matter of weeks.”
European leaders have insisted that is only for Denmark and Greenland to decide on matters concerning the territory, and Denmark said this week that it was increasing its military presence in Greenland in cooperation with allies.
In Copenhagen, a group of senators and members of the House of Representatives met Friday with Danish and Greenlandic lawmakers, and with leaders including Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
Delegation leader Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, thanked the group’s hosts for “225 years of being a good and trusted ally and partner” and said that “we had a strong and robust dialog about how we extend that into the future.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, said after meeting lawmakers that the visit reflected a strong relationship over decades and “it is one that we need to nurture.” She told reporters that “Greenland needs to be viewed as our ally, not as an asset, and I think that’s what you’re hearing with this delegation.”
The tone contrasted with that emanating from the White House. Trump has sought to justify his calls for a U.S. takeover by repeatedly claiming that China and Russia have their own designs on Greenland, which holds vast untapped reserves of critical minerals. The White House hasn’t ruled out taking the territory by force.
“We have heard so many lies, to be honest and so much exaggeration on the threats towards Greenland,” said Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic politician and member of the Danish parliament who took part in Friday’s meetings. “And mostly, I would say the threats that we’re seeing right now is from the U.S. side.”
Murkowski emphasized the role of Congress in spending and in conveying messages from constituents.
“I think it is important to underscore that when you ask the American people whether or not they think it is a good idea for the United States to acquire Greenland, the vast majority, some 75%, will say, we do not think that that is a good idea,” she said.
Along with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, Murkowski has introduced bipartisan legislation that would prohibit the use of U.S. Defense or State department funds to annex or take control of Greenland or the sovereign territory of any NATO member state without that ally’s consent or authorization from the North Atlantic Council.
The dispute is looming large in the lives of Greenlanders. Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said on Tuesday that “if we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark. We choose NATO. We choose the Kingdom of Denmark. We choose the EU.””
The chair of the Nuuk, Greenland-based Inuit Circumpolar Council, which represents around 180,000 Inuit from Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia’s Chukotka region on international issues, said persistent statements from the White House that the U.S. must own Greenland offer “a clear picture of how the US administration views the people of Greenland, how the U.S. administration views Indigenous peoples, and peoples that are few in numbers.”
Sara Olsvig told The Associated Press in Nuuk that the issue is “how one of the biggest powers in the world views other peoples that are less powerful than them. And that really is concerning.”
Indigenous Inuit in Greenland do not want to be colonized again, she said.