During his visit to Washington, DC on Wednesday, the Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said that he had a “frank but also constructive” discussion with Vice President J.D. Vance.
He added, however, that the Kingdom of Denmark and the US remained in “fundamental disagreement” about the future security of Greenland.
Well, in typically explosive style, Donald Trump has just emphasized how deep that disagreement is.
On Truth Social, he has announced that, starting on February 1, 10 percent tariffs on all goods sent to the United States from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and the United Kingdom.
These charges, he went on, will increase to 25 percent on June 1st unless “a deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.” The random capitalization is meant to show how serious he is.
Trump’s desire for Greenland, as David Whitehouse explained in his brilliant Spectator piece earlier this week, is not about minerals or even arctic shipping lanes.
It’s about satellites, data, missile detection and the future of warfare. Trump is currently obsessed with building his big, beautiful “Golden Dome” – a giant missile defense system to protect the American homeland. And his administration sees the arctic as crucial real-estate for the construction of this potentially trillion dollar project. Or as he puts it, “because of the Golden Dome, and Modern Day Weapons Systems, both Offensive and Defensive, the need to ACQUIRE Greenland is especially important.”
The Dome, Trump says, “can only work at its maximum potential and efficiency, because of angles, metes and bounds, if this Land is included in it.”
European officials believe the existing security framework for Greenland, involving and potentially expanding existing US military and surveillance stations in the frozen north in partnership with European forces, should suffice. But Trump, who keeps mocking the feebleness of Europe’s arctic security, disagrees.
To protect Northern America (including Canada) and Europe from Chinese and Russian arctic incursions, he says, America must own Greenland outright.
As ever, the full measure of Trump’s “angles, metes and bounds” are hard for the world’s diplomats to read.
It’s no coincidence that he is ratcheting up pressure over Greenland as he prepares to visit Europe next week.
He and a large delegation of senior US officials will attend the World Economic Forum at Davos, in Switzerland, where they will meet various world and European leaders. The White House’s belligerence towards European powers, and the old international rules-based order, has increased dramatically in 2026. Team Trump is fed up with what they see as the obstinacy of the European Union and the United Kingdom, not just on Greenland but over trade, technology, and Ukraine, too. At one level, the aggression over Greenland may be an attempt to establish leverage over Europe with regard to Ukraine.
But it’s also about business. The European Union has just struck a big new trade deal with the Mercosur nations of Latin America – the region in which Trump is currently asserting himself through the “Donroe doctrine.” The EU is also about to sign another significant trade agreement with India on January 27.
The goal of the EU is to forge its own order of world commerce, in large part to counteract Trump’s expansive protectionism. But Team Trump is suspicious of Europe’s willingness to still work with the factory of the world that is China.
Trump wants Greenland, no doubt, but the greater game is over the future of wider world. Last year, when Trump unleashed his global tariffs on Liberation Day, America’s traditional allies sought to appease his agenda, with some success. But this latest escalation of trade hostilities could redefine international relations forever.
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