Davos live: Trump rules out taking Greenland by force but calls for ‘immediate negotiations’ | Davos
Trump: I won’t use force to take Greenland
On to Nato, Trump says: “We give so much, and we get so little in return.”
Trump says the US only gets “death, disruption, and massive amounts of cash [given] to people who don’t appreciate what we do” – and he’s taking about both Nato and Europe generally.
Trump then points out Nato chief Mark Rutte in the audience – who this morning was complimentary about Trump’s pressure to raise military spending among Nato members.
Trump appears to state that he won’t use force to obtain Greenland.
We won’t get anything unless I use excessive strength and force, when we would be unstoppable.
I won’t use force.
Trump then claims that the US has got “nothing out of Nato”, apart from protecting Europe from Russia.
[This is, frankly, offensive. Nato’s collective defence pledge, Article 5, has only been activated once, after 9/11].
And Trump then repeats his desire to acquire Greenland.
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Markets higher as investors welcome ‘no force’ pledge on Greenland
Donald Trump’s pledge today not to use force to take control of Greenland is going down well in the financial markets.
The Dow Jones industrial average share index is up almost 1% so far today at 48,944 points, clawing back most of Tuesday’s losses when geopolitical fears rocked the markets.
The broader S&P 500 index is up just over 1%.
Kathleen Brooks, research director at brokerage XTB, reports that the ‘sell America trade’ has become the ‘buy America trade’.
Here’s why:
The President’s speech at Davos was the most anticipated event of the week. It was delivered in his traditional style: very long, full of anecdotes, and wide ranging in terms of scope.
However, there were two key takeaways for markets. Firstly, Trump will not take Greenland by force and 2, Trump wants the economy to run hot to send US stocks flying north.
Farage: World would be safer if US owned Greenland
Nigel Farage has suggested the world would be a “better, more secure place” if America took over Greenland, PA Media report.
The Reform leader is here in Davos, and discussed Trump’s speech at an event at USA House (the American delegation’s base here, in a Davos church).
But Farage also acknowledged that the move would not be consistent with national sovereignty, or his belief in national self-determination.
He says:
“I have no doubt that the world would be a better, more secure place if a strong America was in Greenland, because of the geopolitics of the High North, because of the retreating ice caps and because of the continued expansionism of Russian icebreakers, of Chinese investment.
“So yes, would America owning Greenland be better for the world in terms of safety and stronger for Nato? It would.
“However, if you believe in Brexit, and if you believe in celebrating America’s 250th birthday, if you believe in the nation states and not globalist structures, you believe in sovereignty.
“And if you believe in sovereignty, you believe in the principle of national self-determination.”
Adam Tooze: Trump supporters here have attitude of ‘serial abuser’
WEF attendees are mulling over Trump’s speech.
My colleague Heather Stewart has just been chatting to the economic historian Adam Tooze, who’s been watching Trump’s speech here in Davos.
He compared the attitude of US Trump supporters he’s met here to that of a “serial abuser,” saying one top US executive had told him, “this is how it’s going to be: we’re going to beat up on you [Europe]; it’s going to hurt – then we’re going to beat up on you some more. You’re going to squeal. And then we’re going to do some kind of a deal on our terms.”
He added,
“They’re just simply saying, ‘you have to accept this is how we are now. This is what it’s like’.”
Asked about how other governments should respond, Tooze said:
“I think we ought to be thinking quite hard about whatever the international equivalent of getting up and leaving is. We need to strengthen ourselves, and have coalitions of friendly people.”
From one populist to another…..
Argentina’s president Javier Milei is now giving a special address, and tells WEF that “Machiavelli is dead”.
He’s banging the drum for liberalism, and outlining how we need to return to “Judeo-Christian values” to save the west, with some philosophical musings on the rights of man.
Quotes to follow…
Newsom: Trump speech was ‘boring’ and ‘boorish’
John Collingridge
Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, described Trump’s speech as the “one of the most insignificant hours I’ve spent in years – and I think the world spent”.
My colleague John Collingridge reports that Newsom gave Trump’s special address a withering review here in Davos, saying:
“It was significant in its insignificance. He said what we all knew- that he’s not going to invade Greenland.”
Newsom, one of the leading contenders among Democratic candidates for president in 2028, said it was “boring, and at times boorish”.
“Fire and fury amounting to quite literally absolutely nothing”.
Newsom said Europe “should be worried if they don’t respond firmly, with conviction to stand tall and what more evidence do you need of that than today?”
He said the response of European leaders including France’s Emmanuel Macron appeared to have tempered Trump.
“What happened yesterday he responded to, and multiple things happened yesterday – it was not just Macron and the EU president’s speech, and Carney’s speech, but the markets reacted.”
Fact check: ‘There are no real wind farms in China”
Dharna Noor
In his Wednesday remarks at Davos, Trump once again showcased his bitter dislike of wind energy.
He said:
“One thing I’ve noticed is that the more windmills a country has, the more money that country loses, and the worse that country is doing.”
The US president claimed that “China makes almost all of the windmills, and yet I haven’t been able to find any wind farms in China.”
“China’s very smart: They make them, they sell them for a fortune,” he said. “They sell them to the stupid people that buy them, but they don’t use them themselves.”
The “couple of big wind farms” that China does have are not in use, Trump claimed.
“They just put them up to show people what they could look like, but they don’t spin, they don’t do anything,” he said, adding that for energy, “mostly China goes with the coal, they go with oil and gas, they’re starting to look at nuclear a little bit, and they’re doing just fine.”
He went on to say China is “shocked that people continue to buy those damn things.”
“They killed the birds, they ruined your landscapes,” he said. “Other than that, I think they’re fabulous, by the way. Stupid people buy them.”
China has more wind capacity than any other country in the world and has twice as much capacity under construction than the rest of the world combined.
China’s wind generation in 2024 equaled 40 percent of global wind generation, according to a 2025 report from think tank Ember Energy. It is also building 180 gigawatts of large solar projects and 159 gigawatts of large wind projects, which together amount to nearly two-thirds of the capacity coming online worldwide, an analysis from Global Energy Monitor says.
European Green Party co-chair Vula Tsetsi is urging European leaders to “stand united against Trump’s bullying” over Greenland.
Following the US president’s demands today to be allowed to acquire Greenland, Tsetsi says:
Trump’s insistence that he will ‘acquire’ Greenland reveal a dangerous nationalistic trajectory, pushing the United States towards a petro-state model, marked by domestic repression and an openly imperial agenda.’
‘We call on all pro-European and democratic forces to act together to defend our values, safeguard Europe’s autonomy, and build a green, self-determined Europe that can uphold international law, defend democracy, and protect people’s rights, including those of the people of Greenland.’
Green energy campaigners are quick to criticise Trump’s comments on green energy, and his call for more drilling in the North Sea today.
Greenpeace UK climate campaigner Lily-Rose Ellis says the US president is wrong to call for more fossil fuel drilling there:
“Trump’s knowledge of North Sea oil and gas amounts to a tottering pile of lies. More oil and gas from UK fields won’t take a penny off our energy bills, taxes on drilling firms are a lot lower than he claims, and gas reserves are running dry.
Our best hope of lowering bills and boosting energy security is to fix our draughty homes and double down on homegrown renewables. The UK government can safely ignore advice from a climate denier bankrolled by the fossil fuel industry and keep working to protect the country from the volatility of oil and gas.”
Tessa Khan, executive director at Uplift, says Trump’s views on UK energy policy are ill-informed, to say the least.
Last year he claimed the UK has 100 years of reserves left, now its 500 years. It’s nonsense.
“After more than fifty years, the UK has burned most of its gas and what’s left of the oil is increasingly difficult and expensive to extract. Regardless of any new drilling, the UK will be dependent on gas imports for nearly two thirds of its gas in just five years time and almost 100 per cent by 2050.
“Of course Donald Trump wants us to remain dependent on fossil fuels – and on US gas specifically – but that’s not in the UK’s national interest. Renewable energy, which we’re lucky to have in abundance, is the only way to reduce our exposure to energy price shocks and mean we are not at the mercy of bad actors like Putin or the whims of Trump.
“Trump is cheerleader-in-chief for an industry that has made obscene profits while millions of people here have struggled with unaffordable energy bills, and which is fuelling the rapid changes we’re seeing to our climate.
“Lets not take advice from a man who thinks climate change is a con job, who is pursuing a policy of US ‘energy dominance’ and who has openly used force to seize the world’s oil resources.”
Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasia Group, says there’s nothing new in Donald Trump’s speech to Davos apart from the pledge not to use force against Greenland- which he says was “never on the table” anyway.
So while it will make headlines, Mark Carney’s speech yesterday (about the rupture in the world order) is the one that matters.
nothing new from trump davos speech other than saying he wouldn’t use force against greenland…which was never on the table.
will make headlines. but carney’s speech is the one that mattered.
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) January 21, 2026
This is curious…. the AFP newswire are reporting that Ukrainian president Zelenskyy is in Kyiv, not at Davos today as Trump suggested in his speech when he said he’d meet with him here (see earlier post).
Back on the Russia-Ukraine war, Trump seems baffled by the poor relations between Moscow and Kyiv.
There is “abnormal hatred” in the relationship, he says.
On Greenland, Trump is like a dog with a meaty bone.
He says the current situation is costing Denmark hundreds of millions of dollars to run it.
It’s very important that we use it for national, and international security, he insists.
It will allow the US to “create a power that will make it impossible for the bad guys to do anything against the perceived good ones.”
Nato has treated the US very unfairly, he claims.
Trump’s now taking a few questions from top WEF operative Børge Brende.
After a jibe at Scott Bessent’s youthful footballing skills (or lack of), Trump then compliments China’s president Xi.
He says he’s always had a very good relation with president Xi, and president Putin – the heads of the “larger powers”.
Xi is an incredible man, Trump gushes, adding what he’s done “is amazing”, he’s respected by everyone.
We then get an anecdote about Xi asked Trump to stop referring to Covid-19 as the “China virus”.
Jakub Krupa
As Trump starts taking questions in Davos, the chair of the European parliament’s trade committee Bernd Lange confirms that “the EU-US deal is on hold until further notice” as the lawmakers pause its implementation process.
In a social media post, he added:
“Our negotiating team just decided to suspend work … on the legal implementation of Turnberry deal. Our sovereignty and territorial integrity are at stake. Business as usual impossible.”
Trump finally wraps up his speech, saying:
The US is back, bigger, stronger than ever before
I’ll see you around.
Some members of the audience stand up to applaud, but it doesn’t feel like as warm a reaction as Mark Carney got yesterday for his speech about the rupture facing the world economy.
You can read a transcript of Carney’s speech here:
And you can read analysis of that speech here:
