Trump Takes Greenland Demand To Europe

President Donald Trump on Wednesday reupped his demand that Denmark hand Greenland over to him, falsely claimed that NATO had never done anything for the United States and announced that people would “be prosecuted” for stealing the 2020 election from him — all to a European audience at an economic policy conference.

Attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, though, were likely relieved by a small snippet of the 72-minute speech: “People thought I would use force. I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force,” Trump said of taking Greenland, just a few days after suggesting that he might.

Trump, who has been obsessed with acquiring Greenland since his first term, told the conference of world leaders and wealthy business executives that the United States should have just kept the Arctic island at the end of World War II.

“Then after the war — which we won, we won it big. Without us right now, you’d all be speaking German and a little Japanese, perhaps,” he said. “After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that? But we did it. But we gave it back. But how ungrateful are they now?”

In tone and content, much of Trump’s 72-minute speech sounded like one of his “policy” or rally speeches. He attacked predecessor Joe Biden. He lied about inflation having been defeated. He used racist attacks against Somali immigrants.

A large section of his remarks focused on Denmark and the NATO Atlantic alliance, with comments that are certain to exacerbate already-strained ties with America’s traditional allies.

Trump’s pledge not to use force was sandwiched between long arguments about why he believed the U.S. deserved Greenland, which he said should not be a part of Denmark, a small country that he claims cannot defend it.

“We saw this in World War II, when Denmark fell to Germany after just six hours of fighting, and was totally unable to defend either itself or Greenland,” he said, later adding: “Denmark knows that we literally set up bases on Greenland for Denmark. We fought for Denmark. We weren’t fighting for anyone else. We were fighting to save it for Denmark. Big, beautiful piece of ice. It’s hard to call it land. It’s a big piece of ice, but we saved Greenland and successfully prevented our enemies from gaining a foothold in our hemisphere.”

He then suggested that Greenland ― which on four separate instances he conflated with Iceland ― should belong to the United States because it was close to the United States. “This enormous, unsecured island is actually part of North America, on the northern frontier of the Western Hemisphere. That’s our territory,” he said.

Trump then went on to lie about the NATO alliance, falsely claiming that it had never done anything for the U.S.

“We never asked for anything, and we never got anything,” he said. “The problem with NATO is that we’ll be there for them 100% but I’m not sure that they’d be there for us if we gave them the call.”

In fact, the only time NATO’s mutual defense provision has ever been invoked in its 70-year history was after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. NATO members fought with the U.S. in Afghanistan for years to follow.

As Trump does in virtually every speech, he lied that the 2020 election had been stolen from him. In fact, dozens of lawsuits he filed to overturn the election results in states Biden won all failed for lack of evidence, and recounts were performed in states with tight results.

Trump and his aides then advanced a scheme to steal the election by generating counterfeit slates of Electoral College votes from a half dozen states. The plan failed when his own vice president, Mike Pence, refused to go along with it during Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, coup attempt.

Trump, nevertheless, has continued falsely claiming that he actually won in 2020, and did so again in Davos. “It was a rigged election. Everybody now knows that they found out people will soon be prosecuted for what they did. It’s probably breaking news, but it should be. It was a rigged election,” he said.

Of most interest to Europe, Trump continued praising tariffs — import taxes paid by American businesses and consumers — as one of the most successful tools at his disposal. He again falsely suggested the exporting nation pays tariffs, but did not specifically address the 10% tariff he announced he would levy on the eight NATO allies that conducted a joint military exercise in Greenland in response to Trump’s threats. That import tax is set to begin Feb. 1 and increase to 25% on June 1 if Denmark has not turned Greenland over to Trump by then.

It’s unclear whether and how this new tax would affect the trade agreement Trump announced with the European Union’s 27 nations last summer. Six of the eight countries Trump wants to punish are members of the EU.