Trump backs away from military force, says U.S. has ‘framework’ for Greenland’s future
NUUK, Greenland — President Trump backed away from his most serious threats to Denmark on Wednesday, easing transatlantic tensions and upsetting Wall Street after rejecting the prospect of using military force to annex Greenland, the Danish territory and the world’s largest island.
Instead, the United States reached a “framework” agreement in negotiations with the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization regarding the future of Greenland, Trump wrote on social media. He provided few details, but told reporters the plan, if accepted and implemented, would be “the ultimate long-term deal.”
The whipping follows weeks of escalating threats from the president to control Greenland by any means necessary — including by force, if he has no other choice.
Now, “the military is off the table,” Trump told reporters at the economic forum in Switzerland, acknowledging sighs of relief throughout the room.
“I don’t think it’s necessary,” he said. “I really don’t. I think people will use better judgment.”
It’s a turn of events that has proven to be good news in Nuuk, where signs hanging from shop windows and kitchen windows reject American imperialism.
“It’s hard to say what are the negotiating tactics and what is the basis for saying all this,” said Finn Meinel, a lawyer born and raised in the Greenlandic capital. “It could be that the joint pressure from the EU and NATO countries had an impact, as did the economic figures from the United States. Maybe that had an influence.”
President Trump speaks Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
(Evan Vucci / Associated Press)
In his Davos speech, Trump noted the market disruptions caused by his threats against Greenland ahead of the conference. Announcing the framework deal on social media on Wednesday, he said he would suspend planned punitive tariffs against longtime European allies who had refused to support his demands.
Prominent world leaders — including those from Canada, France and the United Kingdom, among Washington’s closest allies — had warned earlier this week that Trump’s militant threats against another NATO member were paving the way for a new era of global order that would accommodate a less reliable United States.
For years, Trump has claimed U.S. ownership of Greenland because of its strategic location in the Arctic Circle, where melting ice due to climate change is paving the way for a new era of competition with Russia and China. According to the president, a conflict in the Arctic will require a strong American presence in this region.
While the president dismisses climate change and its perils as a hoax, he has seized the opportunities that could come from the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet, the world’s largest after Antarctica, including the opening of new shipping lanes and new defense positions.
The United States already enjoys broad freedom to deploy whatever defenses it deems appropriate on the island, raising questions in Europe about Trump’s fixation on outright sovereignty over the territory.
“We want a piece of ice for the protection of the world, and they won’t give it. We’ve never asked for anything else,” Trump said while addressing members of the NATO alliance.
“I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force,” Trump said. But Europe still has a choice. “You can say yes, and we will be very grateful,” he continued, “or you can say no, and we will remember.” »
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The day before Trump’s speech, allies warned of a “breakdown” in a world order in which the United States could be seen as a force for good. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in a speech Tuesday called Trump’s efforts to acquire Greenland an example of why “the old order will not return.”
Trump apparently took note of Carney’s remarks and told the crowd Wednesday that Canada “should be grateful.”
“But that’s not the case,” Trump said. “Canada lives on because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.”
The president struck a similar tone in his demands on Greenland, repeatedly calling the United States a “great power” compared to Denmark in its ability to protect the Arctic territory. At one point, he cited the U.S. military’s role in World War II to justify his demands, telling audiences in eastern Switzerland that “without us you would all be speaking German, or maybe a little Japanese.”
This is an insult echoed by the president’s Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, who derided Copenhagen for its decision to divest from US Treasury bonds. “Denmark’s investments in US Treasuries, like Denmark itself, are irrelevant,” the secretary of state said.
Repeatedly, Trump has presented the transatlantic alliance as one that benefits other countries more than the United States.
“We will be 100% with NATO, but I’m not sure they will be there for us,” Trump said. But NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte addressed that concern during their meeting, pointing out that the alliance’s commitment to common defense under Article 5 had only been invoked once: by the United States, after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. “Let me tell you: They will do it,” Rutte said.
But Trump expanded on his thoughts on Greenland in his summit speech, calling his fixation on Greenland “psychological” and questioning why the United States would come to the island’s defense if its only investment was a licensing deal.
“There’s no sign of Denmark there. And I say that with great respect for Denmark, whose people I love and whose leaders are very good,” Trump said. “It is the United States alone that can protect this giant, huge territory – this giant piece of ice – develop it, improve it and make sure that it is good for Europe, safe for Europe and good for us.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom was among the audience reacting in real time to Trump’s remarks. The president’s speech, he later told CNN, was “remarkably boring” and “remarkably meaningless.”
“He was never going to invade Greenland. That was never real,” Newsom said. “It was always a fake.”
Wilner reported from Nuuk And Washington Ceballos.
