Trump Abandons European Tariff Plan, Saying NATO Leader Promised To Work With Him on Greenland

President Trump says he will not be imposing a ten percent tariff on eight European nations which have supported Denmark as it pushes back against American attempts to purchase Greenland. Mr. Trump previously said that the ten percent tariff would spike to 25 percent by this summer if Greenland was not made a part of America’s territory. During a speech at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday, Mr. Trump officially declared that he would not use military force to take Greenland from Denmark, despite leaving the door open to that option for weeks. He did ominously warn, however, that he would “remember” those who do not give him what he wants. After a private meeting with the secretary general of NATO just a few hours later, Mr. Trump also walked back his tariff threat. He says that NATO leadership and his administration will begin working on a “deal” with respect to Greenland. Mr. Trump has been obsessed with expanding the size of the United States since the beginning of his second term. He has declared that the Gulf of Mexico is actually the “Gulf of America,” demanded Panama hand over control of its canal, and has threatened countless Latin American countries, most notably Venezuela. Europeans became especially nervous in recent weeks after Mr. Trump captured President Maduro, who is now facing criminal charges at a federal court in New York City. Immediately after that operation, Mr. Trump again started demanding that the Kingdom of Denmark hand over control of Greenland. On Wednesday, he finally shut the door to any potential military operation to seize the island, which has been under Danish control for centuries. “We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that,” Mr. Trump said during his lengthy address to the conference. “People thought I would use force, but I don’t have to use force, I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force.”He demanded a negotiation with the Danish government, despite countless instances of the prime minister saying Greenland would never be for sale. The Danish foreign minister traveled to Washington, D.C. earlier this month to meet with Vice President JD Vance, only to again insist that the United States will not have the island. “We want a piece of ice for world protection,” Mr. Trump told the World Economic Forum on Wednesday. “They won’t give it. We’ve never asked for anything else, and we could have kept that piece of land, and we didn’t. “So they have a choice: You can say yes and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no and we will remember,” the president said. The fallout from Mr. Trump’s address on Wednesday was swift. Leaders in the European parliament put a hold on trade negotiations with the United States shortly after the president wrapped up his remarks. The chairman of the European Parliament’s international trade committee, Bernd Lange, that the trade negotiations are now on hold “indefinitely” considering Mr. Trump’s “continued and escalating threats, including tariff threats, against Greenland and Denmark, and their European allies.”He says Mr. Trump and his administration must “re-engage on a path of cooperation rather than confrontation.”Mr. Trump has been complaining for weeks about the NATO alliance as the Europeans have rallied to each other amidst the president’s threats. After his speech on Wednesday, Mr. Trump held a meeting with the alliance’s secretary general, Mark Rutte.“There is one thing I heard you say yesterday and today. You were not absolutely sure that the Europeans would come to the rescue of the U.S. if you [were] attacked,” Mr. Rutte told Mr. Trump in a meeting after his address. “Let me tell you: they will.”Shortly after that sit-down between Messrs. Trump and Rutte, the president took to Truth Social to announce that he would not be imposing the tariffs he had threatened just days before. “Based upon a very productive meeting that I have had with the Secretary General of NATO, Mark Rutte, we have formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland and, in fact, the entire Arctic Region. This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America, and all NATO Nations,” Mr. Trump wrote online. “Based upon this understanding, I will not be imposing the Tariffs that were scheduled to go into effect on February 1st.”Mr. Trump says there will be other “discussions” about American missile defense programs and Greenland, though he offered no specifics. He says the discussions will be led by Mr. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and special envoy Steve Witkoff.”

Trump Abandons European Tariff Plan, Saying NATO Leader Promised To Work With Him on Greenland

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