'We'll work something out,' Trump says of Greenland row

Ahead of a trip to Davos to participate in the World Economic Forum, US President Donald Trump said he would hold several meetings to address his intention to take control of Greenland.  

"We have a lot of meetings scheduled on Greenland, and I think it's going to work out," Trump said during a press conference on Tuesday in which he lauded his performance over the first year of his second term.

Asked if taking control of Greenland was worth risking the potential breakup of the NATO military alliance, Trump said he was confident an agreement could be reached.

"Something is going to happen that is going to be good for everybody," he said. "I think we will work something out and that NATO will be very happy and we will be very happy, but we need it for security purposes."

Earlier ‌in the day, Trump ‌had ⁠said there was "no going back" on his goal to ‍control Greenland, refusing to ​rule ​out taking the Arctic island by force.

Trump also said he had improved NATO by calling on members to spend 5% of their GDP on defense and had made the alliance "so much better, so much stronger." 

"NATO is only as good as we are," he said of the United States. "If NATO doesn't have us, NATO is not very strong."

President Donald Trump on Tuesday questioned whether NATO would back the United States if it called on the military alliance.

"The big fear I have with NATO is that we spend tremendous amounts of money with and I know we will come their rescue and I just really question whether or not they will come to ours," Trump said at the White House press room while speaking about the accomplishments of his first year back in power.

His assessment comes despite NATO's collective defense agreement, known as Article 5, which states that an attack against one member shall be considered an attack against all. Article 5 has only been triggered once, after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the US, when all its allies positively responded.

The remarks also come as Trump is pushing for control of Greenland from fellow NATO member Denmark, raising fears of a rift that could destabilize the alliance.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warns the bloc is prepared to respond if the US president escalates the current dispute on Greenland and tariffs.

Watch DW's report looking at whether European resolve is enough to shift Washington's position.

In response to US threats towards Greenland, EU lawmakers appear ready to pause the critical ratification of a key trade deal between the US and the EU, the legislature's main political groups said Tuesday, according to the AFP news agency.

The trade deal was struck last summer by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who had argued it would bring stability to the transatlantic relationship. The agreement came in response to the Trump administration unilaterally imposing 15% tariffs on EU goods a year ago.

The European Parliament was expected to vote on the deal in the coming weeks. Although the delay does not automatically kill the agreement, it sends a message to Washington that Europe's legislative body is also ready to respond on the issue of Greenland.

"It is an extremely powerful lever — I don't think companies would agree to give up the European market," Valerie Hayer, president of the centrist Renew group, told AFP regarding the use of the US-EU trade deal as a threat. 

Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen rejected Trump's threat of tariffs as punishment for European countries that object to the US acquiring Greenland, saying the bloc's response would be "unflinching, united and proportional."

"The European Union and the United States have agreed to a trade deal last July," von der Leyen said in Davos. "In politics as in business — a deal is a deal. And when friends shake hands, it must mean something.

"We consider the people of the United States not just our allies, but our friends. And plunging us into a downward spiral would only aid the very adversaries we are both so committed to keeping out of the strategic landscape," von der Leyen added.

The chair of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, David McAllister, has called on the US to "come back to where we were before," rather than further escalate a row over trade.

"Nobody in the European Union, at least nobody who has his senses together, is interested in escalating this conflict with the United States," McAllister told DW. "We are interested in de-escalation and we call on the US side to come back to where we were before." 

McAllister, a member of the European People's Party, also addressed possible EU actions toward the United States. This could include freezing the US-EU trade deal, new tariffs and the so-called trade bazooka, or the anti-coercion Instrument (ACI).

"We are in favor of dialogue and cooperation with the US administration, but this requires respect from the US side and this is lacking." 

While the largest political group in parliament now supports a tougher stance on Donald Trump, it is hesitant to take steps that could further alienate the US president.

"Let's not forget the European Union is the world's largest single market and very attractive not only for American products but especially for your American services." 

Watch the entire interview here:

US President Donald Trump said NATO "would have been in the ash heap of History," if it were not for him.

In a post on his Truth Social network, he also claimed no president — or person — did more for the military alliance. As is often the case, he provided no explanation or evidence for his claim.

Trump's push for US control over Greenland, a territory of fellow-NATO member Denmark, has prompted warnings that such a move could end the alliance that has underpinned Western security for decades.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned the time for "flattering" the US leader was over.

"It's really the future of NATO that is at stake," said Rasmussen, a former leader of both ‌Denmark and NATO.

"The time for flattering is over. It doesn't work. The fact is, Trump only respects force and strength. And unity. That's exactly what Europe should demonstrate right now," he told Reuters news agency at the ‍World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Danish and Greenlandic residents, in protest against Donald Trump's threat to take control of Greenland, have started making red baseball caps spoofing the US president's "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) hats.

The caps reading "Make America Go Away" have reportedly gained popularity on social media and at public protests, such as the demonstrations that took place last weekend in the Danish capital.

One of the owners of the Copenhagen store that produced the hats told Reuters news agency that they had only made 100 hats and they sat unsold for months before gaining popularity in recent days.

The store's co-owner Jesper Rabe Tonnesen designed another cap slogan that became popular among protesters, which reads "Nu det NUUK" — a Danish ‍pun that sounds like "Nu det nok," meaning "Now is enough," but ​substitutes ​the "nok" with "Nuuk," the capital of Greenland.

"I thought, 'How can you communicate in an easy way while putting your foot down?'" Tonnesen told Reuters.

Tens of thousands took part in demonstrations in Copenhagen ‍and Nuuk over the weekend, many of them wearing the protest caps.

President Emmanuel Macron says there is no G7 meeting planned this week.

This comes despite a text message leaked by US President Donald Trump in which the French leader offered to set one up to discuss Ukraine and Greenland.

"No meeting is scheduled. The French presidency is willing to hold one," Macron told the French news agency AFP at theWorld Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

Trump published a seemingly private text message on his Truth Social network that he received from Macron in which the French president wrote, "I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland."

"I can set up a G7 meeting after Davos in Paris on Thursday afternoon," Macron wrote in the message, which his office confirmed as genuine.

The tariffs Donald Trump has threatened to impose on eight European states that contest his claim to take over Greenland could be harder to implement in most cases than the US leader imagines, EU sources say.

Trump has threatened levies of up to 25% on Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, in addition to Britain and Norway.

The first six of those countries, however, are members of the EU single market and customs union, meaning that goods can flow freely throughout the bloc, something that makes tracking their origin difficult.

Therefore, trade levies aimed at any one of the EU's 27 countries could theoretically be circumvented by shifting goods to another member state before exporting them.

"Exports of French wine, Dutch cheese and Danish pharmaceuticals from Budapest to the US might suddenly spike," said an EU diplomat cited by the AFP news agency, in reference to the warm ties between Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the US president.

"Let's see if Trump is going to punish his friend Orban with a tariff," the diplomat added.

 European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill also highlighted the difficulties for the US to identify the country from which a certain article comes, with goods manufactured in the bloc only needing to be labelled as "EU origin."

"From a customs and operational perspective, it is practically very difficult to attribute goods exclusively to a single member state, given that production and transformation processes are often distributed across the EU," Gill said.

He said that while imposing the tariffs on individual EU members was "technically possible," it would involve complex bureaucratic procedures.

The situation is different for Norway and the United Kingdom, with the former in the European Economic Area but not within the customs union, while the latter chose to remain outside the single market when it left the EU.

The EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, has told the European Parliament that although the bloc did not want to pick a fight, it would hold its ground regarding US President Donald Trump's designs on Greenland.

Kallas noted the growing strategic relevance of Greenland but called for all countries to adhere nonetheless to international law in their actions.

"Geopolitical tension and geo-economic competition in the Arctic require that the European Union, together with partners, responds," she said.

"Our response must be realistic and principled, and it must be guided by the international law," Kallas said. "No country has the right to take over the territory of another. Not in Ukraine, not in Greenland, not anywhere in the world."

She added that the concerns about Greenland's security voiced by Trump as one reason for his desired takeover of the Arctic island were unfounded, as the autonomous territory was under the protection of NATO as part of Denmark.

Kallas also warned that tariffs threatened by Trump against European countries opposing his plans would undermine the prosperity of both sides.

Greenland's leader has said that while it was not likely that the US would use military force to fulfil President Donald Trump's goal of taking the Arctic island, an armed attack could not be ruled out.

"It's unlikely that military force will be used, but it cannot be ruled out either. The other party has said so clearly," Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told a press conference in Nuuk, the main city in the Danish autonomous territory.

"That's why we must be ready for all possibilities, but let's emphasize this: Greenland is part of NATO and, if there were to be an escalation, it would also have consequences for the rest of the world," Nielsen added.

His remarks come amid fears in several quarters that any use of US military force to take Greenland would completely go against the principles of solidarity underlying the Western military alliance.

2019

• Trump confirms he has considered acquiring Greenland but says it is 'not No. 1 on the burner'
• After Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen rejects talks on a sale, Trump cancels a planned trip to Denmark
• Danish politicians react with outrage

2024

• As president-elect, Trump resumes public remarks about Greenland
• December: Trump writes on Truth Social that US 'ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity'
• Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede says Greenland is 'not for sale and will never be for sale'
• Trump refuses to rule out military or economic coercion

March 2025

• US Vice President JD Vance visits Greenland, says the US will respect Greenland's sovereignty and not use military force
• Vance criticizes Denmark's governance of Greenland
• Trump later tells NBC News he thinks the US could acquire Greenland without force but does not rule out military options 

December 2025

• Trump appoints Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland
• Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen calls the move unacceptable and summons the US ambassador

January 2026

• After a US operation in Venezuela, Katie Miller — wife of Trump aide Stephen Miller — posts an image of Greenland covered with a US flag, captioned 'SOON'
• European leaders issue a joint statement saying only Denmark and Greenland can decide Greenland's future
• Stephen Miller tells CNN that 'obviously, Greenland should be part of the United States'
• Military personnel from several European countries, including Germany, begin arriving in Greenland 
• Trump threatens tariffs against European allies — announcing 10% tariffs on imports from eight European countries, rising to 25% — unless a deal is reached
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warns of  an "unflinching, united, and proportional" response

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday voiced fears that the tensions surrounding US President Donald Trump's push to take Greenland could take the focus off the almost four-year-long and ongoing Russian invasion of his country.

"I'm worried about any loss of focus during a full-scale war," Zelenskyy told reporters. 

He also warned that the row over Greenland, a Danish autonomous territory, could not be seen as being "interchangeable" with the conflict in Ukraine.

"We have a full-scale war, we have a specific aggressor, and we have specific victims," he said.

He also called for Washington to pursue diplomacy with Europe amid the strong differences over Greenland.

"I want very, very much America to hear Europe, to truly hear it in the format of diplomacy. I think that's what will happen and I strongly believe there won't be any major threats," he said.     

With an emergency EU summit looming and tensions rising over Greenland and trade, Rebecca Christie of the Bruegel think tank says this could be a turning point in Europe's relationship with the United States. But she also warns that even Brussels can't predict what Washington will do next.

When US President Trump returned to office, he vowed to end wars in record time.

But he now says he's changing course after failing to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and he doubled down on his desire to control Greenland.