Donald Trump has vowed to “100%” follow through on his threat to impose tariffs on European countries who oppose his demand to take control of Greenland.
European allies have rallied around Greenland’s sovereignty. Denmark’s foreign minister emphasised the US president cannot threaten his way to ownership of the semi-autonomous Danish territory.
UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper reiterated the UK’s position that the future of Greenland is for “Greenlanders and for the Danes alone” to decide.
On Monday, Trump declined to rule out the use of force and insisted he would press ahead with the threatened tariffs on goods arriving in the US from the UK and seven other Nato-allied countries.
In a post to Truth Social in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the US president said he had a “very good telephone call” with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte, and agreed to a meeting “of various parties” in Switzerland this week.
He went on: “Greenland is imperative for National and World Security. There can be no going back — On that, everyone agrees!”
Trump has said he will charge a 10% tariff “on any and all goods” sent from the UK to the US from 1 February, increasing to 25% from 1 June, until a deal is reached for Washington to purchase Greenland from Denmark.
He said the same would apply to goods from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland – all of whom are members of the defence alliance Nato which was founded in 1949.
Asked if he would follow through on the tariff threat, Trump told NBC News: “I will, 100%.”
When the outlet asked whether he would use force to seize the territory, the president replied “no comment”.
