President Donald Trump doubled down on his pressure campaign for the annexation of Greenland via a series of late-night social media posts. After Monday saw several world leaders speak out against the President’s threat to tariff European allies until Denmark agrees to sell the island to the U.S., Trump announced he had shared a “very good” call with NATO chief Mark Rutte and teased plans for an upcoming meeting to discuss the escalating row over the Kingdom of Denmark territory.
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“I agreed to a meeting of the various parties in Davos, Switzerland. As I expressed to everyone, very plainly, Greenland is imperative for national and world Security. There can be no going back—on that, everyone agrees,” claimed Trump, adding that the U.S. is the “only power that can ensure peace throughout the world—and it is done, quite simply, through strength.”
Further details of the upcoming meeting were not provided, although Trump is due to deliver a speech at the 2026 World Economic Forum at Davos-Klosters on Wednesday, and will likely have a number of behind-the-scenes sit-downs during his trip.
Greenland and Denmark have both repeatedly stated that the Arctic island is not for sale, with Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen announcing last week: “If we have to choose between the United States and Denmark here and now, we choose Denmark.” Yet Trump has shown no signs of retreating and, in a move that has concerned leaders across the globe, the White House has refused to rule out using military force to annex the territory.
Greenland’s positioning between the U.S., Russia, and Europe makes it a strong geopolitical asset, and Trump has argued that Denmark cannot be relied upon to protect the island from Russian and Chinese interests.
Several European countries last week, amid an effort from NATO allies to bolster the security of the island, committed to sending troops to Greenland for military exercises. Trump responded by saying he would impose a 10% tariff on Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and the United Kingdom starting Feb. 1 “on any and all goods sent to the United States of America.” He said the tariff would be increased to 25% on June 1.
Trump’s use of economic pressure prompted outrage among not only European leaders but also some lawmakers within the President’s own Republican Party, who labeled the tariffs “unnecessary, punitive, and a profound mistake.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer offered a rare, public rebuke of Trump’s actions during a filmed address at Downing Street on Monday morning. Although he emphasized the close alliance between the U.S. and the U.K., Starmer said the President’s tariffs threat was “completely wrong” and said such moves are “not the right way to resolve differences within an alliance, nor is it helpful to frame efforts to strengthen Greenland’s security as a justification for economic pressure.”
Unlike some European leaders who have floated the idea of retaliatory tariffs or invoking the Anti-Coercion Instrument (which could restrict access to the single market in which the U.S. has a surplus with the bloc and block applications for E.U. contracts), Starmer expressed an eagerness to de-escalate tensions. “A trade war is in no one’s interest,” he said, dismissing the notion of retaliatory actions.
While Starmer appeared hopeful that “calm discussion between allies” would pave the way forward, Trump—during his overnight social media blitz—lambasted one of the U.K.’s current geopolitical moves and used it as a touchstone to emphasize his Greenland argument.
Trump labeled the U.K.’s plan to hand over sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius “an act of great stupidity.” The U.K. acquired the islands for around £3m ($4m) in 1968, but Mauritius leadership argued it was illegally forced to give away the land in order to get independence from Britain. Per the new deal, which was signed last year, the U.K. will lease back a key military base. (Diego Garcia of the Chagos Islands is currently home to a strategic U.K.-U.S. military base.)
“There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness. These are international powers who only recognize strength,” said Trump, adding that the action from the U.K. is “another in a very long line of national security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired. Denmark and its European allies have to do the right thing.”
In response to Trump’s remarks, a government official told TIME: “The U.K. will never compromise on our national security. We acted because the base on Diego Garcia was under threat after court decisions undermined our position and would have prevented it operating as intended in future.”
They added the deal “has been publicly welcomed by the U.S., Australia, and all other Five Eyes allies, as well as key international partners including India, Japan, and South Korea.”
Meanwhile, in a further display of his Greenland ambitions, Trump posted a digitally-created depiction of himself, joined by Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, planting an American flag beside a sign that reads “Greenland, U.S. territory, EST. 2026.” He also posted an image of himself in the Oval Office last year with several European leaders, including Starmer. However, the image had been digitally-altered so that it showed Trump presenting a fake map of Greenland cloaked with the U.S. flag.
Shortly after Trump’s online remarks, amid increasingly high tensions, U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson addressed the U.K. Parliament on Tuesday morning “in honor of America’s Semiquincentennial celebration.” He’s the first U.S. Speaker of the House to address Parliament. Standing next to U.K. Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Johnson acknowledged the politically-charged backdrop to his visit and expressed his hope to “help to calm the waters.”
“We’ve always been able to work through our differences, calmly as friends. We will continue to do that. I want to assure you this morning that that is still the case,” Johnson told British lawmakers.
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