President Donald Trump lobbed social media posts at European leaders early on Tuesday, doubling down on his demand that the US take Greenland in comments that hung over the annual gathering of leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“There can be no going back,” Trump wrote on social media about his designs on Greenland, the semiautonomous Danish territory, which have shaken the foundations of the Nato alliance.
The flurry of social media messages addressed the leaders of several European allies a day before Trump was expected to join the meeting in Davos.
Trump shared messages from President Emmanuel Macron of France, which a senior French official confirmed were authentic.
“I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland,” Macron wrote in the messages. The French leader also invited Trump to dinner in Paris on Thursday and offered to set up a meeting there of leaders of the Group of 7 countries — with additional invitations to the Russians, Ukrainians, Danes and Syrians.
It was not immediately clear whether Trump responded to Macron’s messages.
The tensions over Greenland threatened to dominate the meeting at Davos. Speaking there later on Tuesday morning, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, suggested that the European Union would take steps to bolster its security in light of the crisis and would be looking at "how to strengthen our security partnerships with partners such as the UK, Canada, Norway, Iceland and others". She did not offer details.
Von der Leyen also argued that Europe needed to change to adapt to a more hostile era, saying, “Nostalgia will not bring back the old order.”
In his social media storm, Trump also shared a message from Mark Rutte, Nato’s secretary general, in which Rutte said he was "committed to finding a way forward on Greenland". An official at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation said the exchange was authentic.
Trump said that he had spoken with Rutte and reiterated his claims that American control of Greenland was essential for the security of the US and of the world.
“We are the only POWER that can ensure PEACE throughout the World,” Trump wrote as he insisted on American military might. “And it is done, quite simply, through STRENGTH!”
Trump also lashed out at British plans to relinquish control of one of the Chagos Islands, in the Indian Ocean, calling it an “act of GREAT STUPIDITY” and saying it was "another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired".
The messages from Trump follow weeks of renewed tensions over Greenland. He recently threatened to impose steep tariffs on European allies and linked his push for Greenland to not winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Greenland, a majority indigenous territory, has said that it is not for sale. Its leader said last week that Greenlanders would rather stay part of the Danish kingdom, its former coloniser, than join the Americans.
Trump has not stopped.
On Tuesday, he posted a computer-generated image of himself planting a flag on Greenland. The image features a wooden placard that reads: “GREENLAND, US TERRITORY, EST. 2026.”
EU pushback
The European Union has threatened to hit back with trade measures. One option is a package of tariffs on $109 billion of US imports that could automatically kick in on February 6 after a six-month suspension.
Another option is the "Anti-Coercion Instrument" (ACI), which has never yet been used. It could limit access to public tenders, investments or banking activity, or restrict trade in services, the sector in which the US has a surplus with the bloc, including the lucrative digital services provided by US tech giants.
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told parliament in Copenhagen on Tuesday that "the worst may still lie ahead".
"We can negotiate about everything political, including security, investments and the economy, but we cannot negotiate our most fundamental values: sovereignty, our country's identity, our borders, our democracy," Frederiksen said.
New York Times News Service and Reuters
