Trump-Greenland newest: US president refuses to say if he would use navy drive to take Greenland

Donald Trump has declined to say whether he would use force to seize Greenland in an interview with NBC News.

“No comment,” Trump told the network in a brief telephone interview when asked if he would use force to seize Greenland.

But when asked whether he will follow through with plans to land the European countries with tariffs, he said: “I will, 100 per cent.”

He said Europe should be focussing on the Russia-Ukraine war rather than Greenland.

European governments would be “very unwise” to retaliate to measures taken by the US in their dispute over Greenland, treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday.

“I think it would be very unwise,” he told reporters when asked about retaliatory trade measures on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

He urged Europe not to doubt Donald Trump’s intentions over Greenland.

“I’ve been travelling, so I haven’t been in touch (with European officials), but I spoke to President Trump and evidently there are a lot of inbounds, and I think everyone should take the president at his word,” Mr Bessent said.

Donald Trump’s 10 per cent tariffs on the UK could have a damaging impact on Britain’s economy and potentially tip it into recession, economists believe.

Mr Trump has long had his eye on Greenland, first proposing US control over the territory in 2019. In his renewed plan for a takeover, he said it was “time for Denmark to give back”, adding: “China and Russia want Greenland, and there is not a thing that Denmark can do about it.”

Donald Trump’s tariff threats have rattled European industry and sent shockwaves through financial markets amid fears of a return to the volatility of last year’s trade war, which only eased when the sides reached tariff deals in the middle of the year.

“This latest flashpoint has heightened concerns over a potential unravelling of Nato alliances and the disruption of last year’s trade agreements with several European nations,” said Tony Sycamore, market analyst with IG based in Sydney.

Oliver Burkhard, the CEO of TKMS, the world’s top non-nuclear submarine maker, said shifting transatlantic ties should encourage Europe to focus on its own strengths and find ways to become more independent.

“I believe that there are, of course, nicer ways than nudges like that, but it is probably necessary, to put it in my own words, to get a kick in the shin to realise that we may have to suit up differently in the future,” he told Reuters.

Denmark is sending a “substantial contribution” of its Armed Forces to the Arctic amid Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs and takeover.

Danish combat soldiers are expected to arrive in Kangerlussuaq in Greenland north of Nuuk on Monday evening, Denmark’s defence ministry told TV2.

Around 200 soldiers accompanied by Army Chief Peter Boyse are expected to arrive on the territory.

France said on Monday that the European Union must be prepared to use wide-ranging “anti-coercion” measures targeting US services if President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to impose more tariffs on his Nato allies over Greenland.

EU governments are drawing up retaliatory measures, including possibly hitting the US with €93 billion worth of tariffs or the so far unused “Anti-Coercion Instrument”, which permits investment restrictions and curbs the export of services such as those provided by US digital giants.

The ACI, which was finally approved in 2023, is seen by many as a “nuclear option” that is ideally meant as a deterrent.

The ACI allows the 27-nation EU to retaliate against third countries that put economic pressure on its member countries to force a policy shift, and offers far wider scope for action than just counter-tariffs on US exports.

The ACI has a 10-point list of possible measures on goods and services. The EU is supposed to select measures that are likely to be most effective to stop the coercive behaviour of a third country and potentially to repair injury.

The ACI was proposed in 2021 as a response to criticism within the bloc that the first Trump administration and China had used trade as a political tool.

European law gives the European Commission up to four months to examine possible cases of coercion. If it finds a foreign country’s measures constitute coercion, it puts this to EU members, which have another eight to 10 weeks to confirm the finding.

Confirmation requires a qualified majority of EU members – a higher hurdle to clear than that for applying retaliatory tariffs.

The Commission would normally then negotiate with the foreign country in a bid to stop the coercion. If that fails, it can implement ACI measures, again subject to a vote by EU members. These should enter into force within three months.

The whole process could take anywhere from a few months to a year to complete.

John Swinney has accused the US President of issuing “economic threats” which are “deeply damaging” after Donald Trump announced tariffs are to be imposed on the UK and other Nato countries as part of a dispute over the future of Greenland.

The Scottish First Minister insisted the threatened tariffs were “the wrong thing to do” claiming they would harm the economy of Scotland and the UK.

He went on to warn the US President’s tariffs could also be “very damaging” in a “diplomatic and security sense”.

Mr Swinney said: “The announcements made by President Trump over the weekend are deeply damaging and they are the wrong thing to do.

“They have the risk of undermining the economy of Scotland and the United Kingdom because of the scale of the tariffs but they also risk undermining the security and the safety of the Nato alliance because of the steps, and the approach, that have been taken in relation to Greenland.

“So, at an economic level, and at a security level, this approach being taken by President Trump is wrong and should not be pursued.”

The First Minister said that “the people of Greenland must be able to decide their own future, that is their right”.

Mr Swinney was clear: “It is not appropriate for the United States to use economic threats on others through the application of tariffs to try to get their way in the face of the right of the people of Greenland to decide their own future.

“Economically these tariffs are very damaging but, in a diplomatic and security sense, they are very damaging because they will destabilise the Nato alliance and none of us want to see that happening.”

For his emergency press conference, the prime minister put on his most serious face (and that is very stern indeed) and declared that the president’s actions had been “badly received”.

Sean O’Grady writes: