- Tariffs will stay until US buys Greenland: Trump.
- European countries reiterate their support for Denmark.
- British Prime Minister Starmer calls the US decision “completely wrong”.
US President Donald Trump pledged on Saturday to implement a wave of tariff increases on European allies until Washington is allowed to buy Greenland, intensifying tensions over the future of Denmark’s vast Arctic island.
In an article on Truth Social, Trump said additional 10% tariffs would take effect Feb. 1 on goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Britain — all already subject to Trump’s tariffs.
These tariffs would increase to 25% on June 1 and remain in effect until a deal is reached for the United States to purchase Greenland, Trump wrote.
Trump has repeatedly insisted he would accept nothing less than ownership of Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark. The leaders of Denmark and Greenland insisted that the island was not for sale and did not want to be part of the United States.
Safety, minerals
The president has repeatedly said Greenland is vital to U.S. security because of its strategic location and significant mineral deposits, and has not ruled out using force to seize it. European countries this week sent military personnel to the island at the request of Denmark.
“These countries, playing this very dangerous game, have brought into play a level of risk that is neither tenable nor sustainable,” Trump wrote.
In Denmark and Greenland, protesters demonstrated Saturday against Trump’s demands and called for the territory to be left free to determine its own future.
The countries Trump cited on Saturday backed Denmark, warning that the U.S. military seizure of NATO territory could derail the Washington-led military alliance.
“The president’s announcement comes as a surprise,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned Trump’s threat with unusual bluntness, saying on X that his country would raise the issue directly with Washington.
“Applying tariffs to allies to ensure the collective security of NATO allies is completely wrong,” Starmer said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa said in separate but identical messages on X that the European Union stood in “full solidarity” with Denmark and Greenland.
“Tariffs would damage transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral. Europe will remain united, coordinated and determined to defend its sovereignty,” they said.
Officials from Norway, Sweden, France and Germany reiterated their support for Denmark on Saturday and said tariffs should not be part of the Greenland discussions.
Cyprus, which currently holds the EU presidency, said it had called an emergency meeting of ambassadors from the bloc’s 27 countries on Sunday.
Trade agreements under threat?
Saturday’s threat could derail tentative deals Trump reached last year with the European Union and Britain. The agreements included basic levies of 15% on imports from Europe and 10% on most British products.
“The biggest danger, it seems to me, is his decision to treat some EU countries differently from others,” said William Reinsch, a trade expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “I’m not surprised [….] This could well convince the European Parliament that there is no point in approving the trade deal with the United States, since Trump is already bypassing it.”
Trump floated the general idea of tariffs on Greenland on Friday, without citing a legal basis for doing so. Tariffs have become its weapon of choice to try to force American adversaries and allies to meet its demands.
He said this week that he would impose 25% tariffs on any country doing trade with Iran because that country was cracking down on anti-government protests, although there was no official White House documentation of that policy on its website, nor any information about what legal authority Trump would use.
The U.S. Supreme Court has heard arguments on the legality of Trump’s massive tariffs, and any decision by America’s highest court would have major implications for the global economy and U.S. presidential powers.
The encroaching presence of China and Russia makes Greenland vital to U.S. security interests, Trump said. Danish and European officials have stressed that Greenland is already covered by NATO’s collective security pact.
A US military base, Pituffik Space Base, is already in Greenland, with around 200 personnel, and a 1951 agreement allows the US to deploy as many forces as it wants on Danish territory.
This led many European officials to conclude that Trump was motivated more by a desire to expand U.S. territory than by security concerns.
“China and Russia must be having a field day. They are the ones taking advantage of divisions between allies,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on X in response to Trump’s threats.
Some U.S. senators have also pushed back. “Continuing on this path is bad for America, bad for American businesses, and bad for America’s allies,” Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Thom Tillis, bipartisan co-chairs of the Senate NATO observer group, said in a statement.
Europeans should not react hastily to Trump’s tariff threats, said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING Research.
“Ignore it and wait and see,” Brzeski told Reuters. “Europe has shown that it will not accept everything and the tariffs are therefore already a step forward compared to the threat of military invasion.”
