WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump refused Monday to say how far he is prepared to go on Greenland, suggesting he could “make a deal” even as European leaders warned that any U.S. move to seize the autonomous Arctic territory from ally Denmark would shake NATO and trigger a response.
Asked hours before departing for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, how far he would go, Trump replied: “You’ll find out.” He added that he has “a lot of meetings scheduled on Greenland” in Davos and predicted “things are going to work out pretty well.”
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Trump said he believes the United States and its allies can “work something out where NATO is going to be very happy and where we’re going to be very happy,” casting Greenland as an urgent security priority. “We need it for security purposes,” he said. “We need it for national security and even world security.”
Denmark has warned that the entire NATO alliance is at risk if the White House advances threats to claim the territory. Over the weekend, Trump vowed fresh tariffs on European countries — including Britain, France and Germany — which sent troops to Greenland in solidarity, he said.
Greenland’s leadership has repeatedly stressed the vast but sparsely populated island is not for sale. Asked about opposition on the island, Trump said: “When I speak to them, I’m sure they’ll be thrilled.” He has argued the U.S. needs Greenland to counter potential Russian or Chinese designs as climate change opens Arctic sea routes.
Danish officials have countered that neither Russia nor China claims Greenland, and say China has no major investments there and has not recently sent warships to the island.
Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Tánaiste Simon Harris, said “everything is on the table” regarding a potential European response if the U.S. were to “annex” Greenland or part of it. Speaking on RTÉ’s Six One News, Harris said any action at the European level would be proportionate but warned against a “spiral” of “tit-for-tat tariffs.”
The Greenland remarks came as Trump marked the first anniversary of his return to the White House with a wide-ranging, often downbeat news conference that leaned on familiar grievances more than celebration. Opening with a lengthy critique of illegal immigration, he shifted from topic to topic — from U.S. military action in Venezuela and welfare fraud by Somali immigrants in Minnesota to renewed attacks on his predecessor, Joe Biden — in a performance that echoed the campaign style that preceded his return to office.
He repeated a series of claims long disputed or debunked, including that his 2020 election loss was “rigged,” that prescription drug prices had fallen by 600% and that the U.S. had attracted $18 trillion in inward investment. At one point, he described himself as a “financial genius” and faulted his own staff for failing to better communicate what he cast as major successes in reducing inflation.
“We’ve done more than any other administration has done, by far, in terms of military, in terms of ending wars, in terms of completing wars,” Trump said. He returned to office on Jan. 20 last year after defeating Democratic then–vice president Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
As reporters packed the briefing room, White House aides circulated a 31-page document listing 365 claimed “wins” across immigration, the economy and foreign policy.
On foreign affairs, Trump signaled interest in working with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado on the country’s future following what he described as Washington’s Jan. 3 military operation that removed Nicolás Maduro from power. “We’re talking to her,” Trump said. “Maybe we can get her involved in some way. I’d love to be able to do that.”
He also praised Machado for giving him her Nobel Peace Prize medal, and again complained that the Norwegian committee should have honored him instead.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
