President Trump hints at shifting focus from peace over Greenland
President Donald Trump has declared that peace is not “purely” a priority after he was snubbed of the Nobel Peace Prize for defending tariffs on control of Greenland.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has signaled he will not back down from his plan to take over Greenland ahead of an expected confrontation with European leaders.
Asked at a January 20 White House press conference how far he would go to acquire Arctic territory owned by NATO ally Denmark, the president simply said, “We’ll see.”
The president has repeatedly refused to rule out military action to seize Greenland, an issue that has quickly become a thorn in the side of the NATO military alliance.
President Trump appeared at the White House podium before traveling to Switzerland to speak at the Davos Economic Forum and meet with other heads of state.
The press conference came after an overnight social media uproar over the release of private text messages from NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and French President Emmanuel Macron criticizing the UK’s agreement to hand over islands where the US and UK share military bases to the country of Mauritius.
In a written statement, Mr Macron said he did not understand Mr Trump’s obsession with Greenland and had invited him to Paris to discuss the issue with world leaders. Trump refused.
“He won’t be there for very long,” the US president said at a press conference. President Macron’s term ends in May 2027.
While in Davos, President Trump said there were “a lot of meetings scheduled in Greenland” and predicted that “things are going to go pretty well.”
The latest mass message in the battle over Greenland’s future comes after a handful of NATO allies sent small forces to the island to take part in joint exercises with Denmark, and the U.S. military announced that aircraft would land at a U.S. military base in Greenland on Jan. 19. President Trump also said he would impose 10% tariffs on countries including the United Kingdom, France and Norway on February 1st, rising to 25% on June 1st.
The US president said he had not spoken to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer or Mr Macron since posting about them on Truth Social earlier in the day.
“When I’m not there, they’re a little rowdy, but when I’m there, they’re very gentle,” he says.
Over the weekend, President Trump also shared a text message he sent to Norway’s prime minister, suggesting he was less willing to pursue a peace deal after his Nobel Prize nomination was rejected by a Norwegian committee.
“But no matter what they say, I feel that Norway has a tremendous amount of control over who wins the Nobel Prize,” Trump said.
The episode unfolded less than a week after Danish and Greenlandic officials traveled to the United States to meet with Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. European leaders reiterated after the meeting that ownership of Greenland was not up for debate.
When told at a January 20 press conference that Greenlanders did not want to join the United States, President Trump claimed he could persuade them.
“I’m sure they’ll be excited when I tell them,” he said.
Contributor: Bert Jansen
